Semper Fidelis
by Minikimii
Summary: He'd always wondered how far he would go, how low he would stoop, to get the one thing he wanted most in his life. Well, now Riku had his answer. Shounen-ai
1. Keeping Him at Bay

This is a by-product of doing nothing but playing KHII for two days. Seriously.  
^ That was a really old Author's Note from two breaks ago. Man, this story's been festering in my computer for a while. I've been hesitating to post this, but... well, now that it's been sitting here, 25% complete for a few months, I figure I should just post the damn thing already.

Well, now you guys get to read it. Whoo~! :D

* * *

**Semper Fidelis  
**Keeping Him at Bay

_"Wh-what were you two doing?"_

_Kairi stood up and smoothed out her purple skirt. Her arms were shaking. "N-nothing…" _

_"Liar!" he yelled, turning to point an accusatory finger at Riku. "What did you make her do?"_

_"It was nothing, Sora, I promise."_

* * *

"Stop staring, Sora. You can't make him explode by looking at him."

"Shut up, Kai," the brunet bit back, eyes still intent on his target. "I damn well can if I want to."

The redhead sighed and slouched into her seat. Dealing with this kind of thing was so routine she liked to imagine it made her facial muscles ache from all the times she'd told Sora to quit warring.

Obviously, every attempt had been in vain.

"Boys will be boys…" she sighed. Rolling her eyes for the millionth time, Kairi took off toward the student parking lot. She was Sora's ride home, so obviously the brunet would _have_ to follow her eventually, right?

Right.

It was the second week of senior year, and Kairi could already feel the onset of senioritis coming to bite her in the ass. With SAT scores looming overhead along with college applications constantly nagging at her conscience, Kairi was in for one hell of a stressful year, not to mention her crazy full-day schedule. Damn those people who had half-days.

Kairi leaned her bodyweight against the green glass door and pushed the metal frame open. It was way too damn bright to brave the sunshine alone, so she dug around in her bag until she produced a pair of brown sunglasses. They were glamorous, but jewelless. It was bad enough that she already had to protect her eyes; she refused to subject other people to the reflective annoyance of rhinestones.

The air outside was an unlovely one-oh-five-degrees—a perfectly imperfect start to the second week of senior year. Hoards of students were mulling about in the shade, sheens of sweat coating the back of their necks, the plastic slip covers of their newly bought folders melting from the desert heat. Adjusting her purse strap on her shoulder, Kairi crossed the asphalt and found her parking space, number 326, and shoved the key into the driver's side keyhole and watched the paopu charm on her key chain swing idly as she turned the small metal rod. A wincing hiss escaped her lips as she settled onto the leather seat. Damn… and this weather was going to last another month and a half before it began to cool down.

Damn Arizona for being so effing hot.

Tomorrow, she was wearing a pair of Sora's basketball shorts to school.

Annoyed, she cranked up the air conditioning to full blast. Within seconds, her car was a soothing eighty or so degrees and her radio softly played the tunes of a local alternative rock station. Ten full minutes later, someone began tapping at her passenger side window.

Sora finally decided to show up.

"Hey, Kai, lemme in!" he yelled, pounding his fists against the windows.

"Hell no!" she laughed back after rolling down the glass a crack. "You made me wait, so I'll make you wait."

She watched with satisfaction as the brunet's shoulders slumped and he stripped off his shirt to take refuge under the shade of a scraggly tree nearby. When he turned to look back at her with puppy eyes, she stuck her tongue out at him and kicked back in the driver's seat.

This kind of power made Kairi feel like a goddess.

* * *

_**So Sexy It Hurts has logged on.**_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey, doll, what's up?_

_Kai: not much. how was your first week?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Could be better. You?_

_Kai: sora tried to use his uber esp to explode your face again._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Wonderful. How did he do?_

_Kai: you tell me. is your face still intact?_

**So Sexy It Hurts is inviting you to start sending webcam. Do you want to ****Accept**** (Alt+C) or ****Decline**** (Alt+D) the invitation?**

Kairi accepted and the webcam feed popped onto her screen. On the other side was a refined-looking shirtless boy with his hair tied back in a high, girly ponytail.

So Sexy It Hurts: See? No scars.

_Kai: really? all i see is one giant mutilated grotesque mess :P_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Baby, that's the mirror. Turn around and look at the computer screen._

Just as Kairi was about to key in her response, a knock sounded from her bedroom door and opened soon after to reveal her mother standing outside, holding a glass of water and a small stack of laundry.

"Drink this and put these away. God knows you've been holed up here for a few hours now and you need the liquids."

"Thanks, mom." She took the glass of water and the laundry from her mother. "Even though that was an awful excuse for coming to see me."

"Got me up here, didn't it?" Her mother leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "Now be a good girl and finish your damn homework before midnight."

Kairi rolled her eyes and made a move to shut the door, but her mother's hand caught the door before it shut. "Will do, _mother_."

"Good girl."

Kairi laughed and swung the door shut. Immediately, she turned around and placed the pile of folded clothes at the foot of her bed and plopped down atop the deep purple sheets. Going to sleep right now felt like a really great idea… She stared up at the ceiling and let her mind wander back to when she was younger, carefree, homework free…

Back when Sora wasn't intent on smiting his ex-best-friend off the earth.

_'Why did it all have to change?'_

Saddened, Kairi curled up into a ball on her bed and hugged her sapphire body pillow to her chest. A small window of hurt opened up in her chest, allowing a fresh breeze of sadness to swallow her whole.

And they were so happy when they were little. Why did Sora go out of his way to make everything so difficult? Why… They were supposed to be best friends, the three of them. Why did it have to change? Why did Sora have to react like…

By the time Kairi got back to her laptop, the chat window was filled with new messages.

_So Sexy It Hurts: So what were we thinking when we signed up for AP English? This homework is crazy, isn't it?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey, Kai, ya still there?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Whore! Talk to me!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: My bad, skank. Get on your knees first, then speak to me._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Seriously. Where the fuck are you?_

_Kai: sorry bitch im back. what did i miss?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: The birth of your second son._

_Kai: i thought that was soras baby not mine!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Wow. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: Fuck you, skank. Fuck. You._

_Kai: young man thats no way to speak to a lady._

_So Sexy It Hurts: I'm sorry, where lady is this you speak of?_

_Kai: assface_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Loamface._

_Kai: tinkerbell_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Slutmuffin._

_Kai: dimpledick_

_So Sexy It Hurts: "Dimple-dick"? What the hell is a dimple-dick?_

_Kai: yours_

_So Sexy It Hurts: How the hell would you know? And where the fuck is the dimple?_

_Kai: oh my bad. youre obviously a straight man and apparently dont sleep with the likes of me: a young MAN_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Bitch, don't go there._

_Kai: haha… sorry riku_

_So Sexy It Hurts: No worries. :)_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey, I'm gonna turn in for the night._

_Kai: good night then_

_Kai: love ya_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Good Night to you too, doll._

_So Sexy It Hurts: (Love you, slut.) _

_**So Sexy It Hurts has logged off.**_

* * *

Riku kicked back in his chair and stared at the computer screen. On his wallpaper was a picture of three eight-year-olds, their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, each smiling at the camera—missing teeth and all—with unsuppressed happiness shining in their eyes.

Kairi, Sora, and Riku.

Without thinking, Riku reached forward and smoothed a thumb over the image of the brunet's cheek, leaving a smudge of finger oils on the plasma screen that distorted the boy's jubilant smile under a film of filth.

They were eight years old, and they were happy. It was another routine summer day at Riku's house. Sora and Kairi had both come over, bathing suits and towels in hand for a day of hanging out around the pool. Although the adults had come over for a barbeque, Sora's older brother (Leon) and his friend Cloud were left with the responsibility of watching the three youngsters splash each other around; after all, Cloud and Leon were college kids with lifeguard training. In fact, Leon was in med school. Who else would be better qualified?

"Who wants watermelon?"

The three kids had been splashing around in the pool when Sora suddenly stopped and hoisted himself up out of the water.

"Us first, us first!" he yelled, walking quickly in jerky motions toward Riku's brother, Sephiroth.

Sora had learning long ago not to run on the pool deck, especially with wet feet.

Back in the water, Riku and Kairi laughed and shared a knowing glance. Even though they'd swam to the edge of the pool, they wouldn't even have to get out of the water, because Sora would return within a matter of seconds with a heaping plate of chilled watermelon for all three of them.

That was just the kind of kid Sora was.

The kind of kid Riku knew from day one that he'd been in lo…

"Sora."

The name came out as a whisper against Riku's lips, and he savored the feel of it inside his mouth, against his tongue. And it wasn't like Riku could stop doing this—whispering Sora's name—because every time he did so, even if it was just for a few seconds, a feeling of warmth spread through his body and he could almost imagine what it was like to be with the brunet again.

Oh but it was so hard to imagine. How long had it been since they'd last hugged?

(Three years, two months, one week, and six days, but Riku wasn't counting. Oh no, Riku sure as hell wasn't counting.)

This isn't healthy for me.'

He abruptly pushed the chair back from his desk and stood up. Damn straight, this wasn't good for him! Any more thoughts like this and he was bound to qualify for the mental institution downtown…

Annoyed, Riku stalked over to the light switch by his bedroom door and flicked it off. He could manage the short distance back to his desk easily in the dark.

Outside, the streetlights flickered on and off, taunting the insects that hung around the globes of light. The neighborhood was silent by this time of night. All the children were done playing the park (which actually took place hours ago, to be realistic), people stopped going for their evening bike rides, and loitering delinquents finally left their meet-up posts to go terrorize security guards at the mall a mile away.

Yawning, Riku pulled off his black hair tie and tossed it on the desk. Thank goodness he'd gotten his homework done before ten today. It was eleven-o-clock and Riku was going to get a nice, solid seven hours of REM rest tonight.

"Because tomorrow is a brand new day," he sang to no one in particular. His voice was laden with sleep and the notes came out feeling thick and eggy.

The track playing from his sound system changed to a soft, calming piano solo and the room filled with a melody that stirred up emotions of aching yearning in Riku's chest.

The silveret collapsed on the bed and curled up on his side, hugging one blanket around him and the other in his arms. Idly, he let his fingers brush over the brown fabric of the second blanket as though he were playing the sweet, pained tune himself. He eyes slid shut as the song came to an end and Riku curled up against the blanket more securely, locking his arms around the soft mass and curling his face over the top of the blanket bundle.

He wouldn't have liked to admit it to anyone, but… sometimes he pretended that it was Sora in his arms.

Maybe tonight he'd be lucky enough to have another dream about Sora.

* * *

Kairi sat idly on one of the green benches outside the East entrance of the school, waiting for Sora to join her. He'd left his English mini-essay sitting on the passenger seat and needed to go back and retrieve it. Class would be starting in five minutes, and they would probably have to sprint to first hour together and come in looking disheveled in a more-than-friends way.

Ya know, because wearing Sora's clothing on a regular basis only reinforced the rumor that they were dating.

Not that either of them cared—as long as they knew what was up, the rest of the world could go to hell. And, apparently, Sora thought that included Riku too.

Kairi watched the other cars rush into the parking lot, crazy sophomores with their fresh-off-the-press licenses turning somewhat awkwardly into the crowded lot. It was off-putting to say the least, but it was a great morning and she had no qualms about waiting a few more minutes in the tranquil weather. She could tough out watching their awkwardness for a few more minutes.

"Good Morning, Kairi."

The redhead turned around to see Riku come up from behind her, backpackless, obviously having already been to his first period class to drop off his things.

"Morning, 'Kuu," she replied, standing up to give him a hug. "How's my favorite fairyboy doing?"

"Not so loud, whoremuffin! Someone might hear you." The silveret narrowed his eyes and looked quickly around the immediate vicinity for any passers-by. "Anyway, why aren't you in class yet? First hours starts in, like, three minutes."

"I could ask you the same thing," the redhead laughed back. "But… you're a fucking track star, so it's probably a piece of cake for you to run all the way to D-hallway without breaking a sweat. I bet security doesn't even give a fuck anymore when you do your mad dash!" Suddenly, Kairi frowned and chewed her lower lip as she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Sora left his English essay in my car, so I'm waiting for him to come ba—"

SCREEEEEEEEECH!

Riku and Kairi turned just in time to watch in horror as the scene played out before them: a black SUV swerved and crashed into a tree, barely nicking the car that was parked beside the plant. The few people that were loitering outside the school, grew silent and turned with horrified expressions toward the noise. Someone even got out their camera (a photography student, perhaps?) and began taking pictures of the wreckage.

And Sora lay in an unconscious heap yards away.

"SORA! SORA!"

Kairi stood frozen as her eyes refused to tear away from the image of Riku, running as fast as his track runner's legs could carry him, collapsing beside Sora's limp body and laying the boy flat out on the ground. The silveret's cell phone was already in one hand, pressed against his ear, as his head lay against Sora's chest, listening for a beat from the brunet's heart.

Kairi's legs crumpled beneath her and numbness overtook her body as the school's security guards came rushing to the scene to aid the student in the car. The dust swirled around her form, clinging gently to the tears streaming relentlessly down her cheeks. Although she couldn't see past her quickly blurring vision, she knew—fuck how, but she just knew—that feet away, Riku was sobbing into the petit teen's chest, the phone pushed desperately against his ear as he relayed information to the people who would send the ambulance speeding toward their school.

"Sora…" She sobbed, her hands clenching and unclenching into little fists against her mouth and chest. "Oh, God… Sora… Riku… help Sora…"

* * *

I hate to be a review whore, but... indulge me? It feeds my plotbunnies and motivation.

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	2. A Blank Slate

Notes about this story:

Those of you who Author Alert me will already have guessed that I did NOT post Sunshine in a Bag like the poll results indicated people wanted. Well, that's because SiaB only has one chapter done, and this story has three already written and a fourth on the way. So yeah. _Semper Fi_ overruled _SiaB_. Or something.

I plan to have this done by the time spring break is over, so the process is just write-reread-post in rapid, beta-less succession. This, however, means I'm generally not putting so much effort in to it as I probably should and could as I'm spending most of this break studying for my AP test and SAT II's.

Meanwhile, AP Language and Composition has killed my fiction voice.

Anyway, this chapter is shorter than last time's, but what it lacks in length (I hope) it makes up for in content.

* * *

**Semper Fidelis  
**A Blank Slate

_His chest was fluttering in nervous anticipation. This was going to be the first day of eighth grade, the first day of his last year in junior high! Next year, he was going to be a freshman and this was going to be his first stepping-stone into high school._

_He readjusted the strap on his old battered and tattered red and black checkered backpack excitedly. If he listened closely, he could hear Riku's mom's car rounding the corner before he could see it._

_Excited, Sora stepped out toward the sidewalk and waved at the two silver-haired figures inside the front and passenger seat. Smiling and wiggling around in a nervous bundle of first-day jitters was Kairi, her hands folded in her lap in the back seat._

_When he opened the door to get in, rap music assaulted his ears and made him wince._

_"Hey, guys. You excited or what?" Sora half-yelled over the noise after sliding into the backseat and clicking his seatbelt into place._

_Curling a strand of her almost-boy-short red hair behind her ear, Kairi smiled half-heartedly. "I feel really old."_

_"That's because you are!" Riku joked from the passenger seat, turning around so he could face his two best friends, "miss I-was-born-in-November-so-I-should-make-all-the-mature-decisions here!"_

_"Oh shovit, 'Kuu!" the redhead bit back with a teasing laugh. Kairi must've been in a really good mood, because she usually wasn't this talkative or assertive._

_"Yeah," Sora agreed. "Just because you're still pretty enough to be a girl doesn't mean you can pick on one!"_

_Riku turned around and glared at them through the rear view mirror. "You two suck ass."_

_"Riku," his mother warned. "Watch your language."_

_"Says the woman who listens to songs about banging hoes and shooting up every weekend," Riku shot back at his mother. "Hypocrite."_

_Sora laughed and hugged his backpack to his chest. Man, today was going to be great. He could just feel that—_

Everything hurt.

It wasn't a sharp pain at first, but kind of like he was floating away on some sort of cloud with dull little pencil tips poking up at random angles into his back and sides and face and legs and arms and _fuck_! _Now _it was starting to hurt.

And then there was the sensation that everything was too big. His entire body felt like he'd become one of those Grow-A-Dino (just add water!) figures that had been left in the glass cup for too long. He tried moving his face a little, fingers, toes, but found them to be both loose and stiff from disuse.

Panic overcame his senses when he cracked his eyes open a slight hairsbreadth to sight of blurred fluorescent lights and white, speckled foamy (hospital?) ceiling. Yes, it must be a hospital. The lingering scent of formaldehyde was strong in the air, potent to the point where Sora was sure he was in or near the surgical wing. His brother, Leon, was studying to become a surgeon. He'd taken Sora on one of his hospital visits (on the part of Sora's begging and pleading) once, and since then the smell of strong chemical cleanser had never left his memory.

So why was he in the hospital? Wasn't it supposed to be his first day of freshman year? He was just in the car with Kairi and Riku and Riku's mom and they were driving to school and the air was perfect and clear and Riku and Kairi were arguing like they always do for the umpteenth time and he was laughing along and the radio was playing that godawful rap music Riku's eccentric mother liked so much and what the fuck was going on?!

Someone was stirring at the space on his bedside, and that same someone was holding his hand, rubbing a soothing back-and-forth motion against the back of his thumb. And that someone's hand felt awfully familiar, strong, smooth, warm, inviting… loving.

"Sora? Sora, are you awake?"

" 'Awake'? Wh-what does that… Was I asleep?"

"Nurse! Nurse!!" the male voice called into the air above him. "Someone get Doctor Leonhart! His brother is awake!"

" 'Dr. Leonhart'? That's not Leon is it? B-but Leon's still in his last year of med school. He can't be a doctor already…"

Sora vaguely felt a hand cup his cheek lightly and soft lips brush his forehead before that same male voice was whispering against his skin.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Sora. So glad…"

A single warm tear transferred from the stranger's eyes onto Sora's eyelids before he felt the warmth of the other body pull away. He wanted to reach out and grab the only solid thing he'd felt since this sudden hiccup in realty, but his arms wouldn't budge; he was strapped down by too many bandages and sedatives to move.

Then he was surrounded by strangers. Their collective presence poked and prodded at his body, causing a fresh wave of panic ripped through his chest and bubble over to his shaking throat. Where was the person that had been holding his hand?

Where was Riku?

_'Oh God, someone please tell me what happened!'_

* * *

"Yeah, he woke up twenty minutes ago."

"That's good." Kairi curled up closer to the silver-haired teen and he wrapped an arm around her skinny frame. "I hope he's okay. I mean, eleven days unconscious…"

"Me too…" He sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. "I… I kissed him on the forehead when he woke up—"

"You what?!" Kairi nearly jumped out of her seat in the hospital waiting room.

Riku watched her face carefully, noting the not altogether negative shock and surprise. "I mean… I feel like I kind of took advantage of him, because he couldn't move and he felt so scared… I don't know. It just felt like the right thing to do." He sighed against and stood up. "I really hope he isn't mad when he regains full consciousness."

Kairi scoffed and curled up into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest. "You'll be lucky if you get out with your left testicle still intact."

"Yeah, no kidding…"

Riku had been so afraid that Sora would wake up while he was at the brunet's bedside that he hadn't stopped to think how he would react if it actually happened. All he knew to do was to drive to the hospital every day after school for eleven days to spend time holding the brunet's hand, play some of his favorite music (supplied by Kairi) and maybe sing to him softly when there were no nurses or doctors or Kairi coming in to check on his progress. He'd gotten so used to being around Sora again, saying his name in a way that made Riku feel like he was home again.

Riku realized with a start that he'd gotten so used to whispering Sora's name that it was weird to say it aloud in a normal volume.

Gods, that was so pathetic.

He stood up and Kairi jolted to standing with him. Why was this happening now? What kind of God in heaven would make his best friend (a term he used privately, for Sora obviously wanted nothing to do with him anymore) fall into a coma?

Where the hell were Sora's parents? They should've been here by now. Of course, it was a Thursday and it was about three-o'-clock in the afternoon so they were both at work, but they loved Sora. They should be here by now, and if not by now, then within the next five minutes!

"Excuse me, Mr. Arnett?"

"Yes?" Riku stood up to see Sora's older brother, Squall Leonhart, holding a clipboard. "And please don't be all prissy-formal with me; just call me Riku."

"Right, Riku," Leon amended a bit awkwardly. "Well, have you seen… my parents?"

"No," Kairi answered for him, "they're not here yet."

A flash of a pained look crossed over Leon's features. "I… Legally, I shouldn't be doing this, but… stepping outside my role as a surgeon and into my role as the Sora's—the patient's—uhh... Sora's big brother…"

Kairi detached herself from Riku's arm and stepped lightly over to the scarred brunet, placing a hand on his forearm. "What, Leon?"

"You need to know," Leon murmured. Riku almost felt as if he was reasoning with himself, trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing. "Sora doesn't…"

And Riku couldn't take it anymore. Without giving an explanation, the silveret turned and sped out of the waiting room toward the parking lot. Vaguely, he registered the sound of Kairi and Leon's voices shouting after him, he chose to ignore it. He let his legs carry him out to the parking lot to where his white Honda Civic sat waiting. He shoved the key into the lock on the driver's side and yanked the door open, only to collapse into a shaking heap once he was safely inside his car.

He fought back the tears that began to push at the corners of his eyes, fisting his hands around the steering wheel.

He had to leave. He had to because his mind had already filled in the words he was sure would break him down to nothing, the words he was sure Leon was going to speak:

'Sora doesn't want to see Riku.'

- -

Back in the waiting room, Kairi and Leon had taken adjacent seats in the spaces closest to Sora's waiting room.

"Please, Leon. What is it?" Kairi demanded in the barest whisper she could muster.

Leon paused for a long minute, his dark brows wrinkling, creasing his diagonal facial scar in an awkward, lumpy shape. Then, in the steadiest voice he could manage…

"Sora has amnesia. He can't remember anything past the first day of high school."

* * *

_**Kai has logged on.**_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey there._

_Kai: hey_

_So Sexy It Hurts: So did Sora's parents show up after I left?_

_Kai: yeah. sora was asking for you too_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Really?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: What, does he want to chop off my left testicle now?_

_Kai: no actually. he said he wanted to talk to you_

_Kai: something about private questions he wanted to ask you_

_So Sexy It Hurts: … It's probably about the kiss, isn't it?_

_Kai: i dont know. he wouldnt tell me._

_Kai: my best guess agrees with yours though_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Fine… is he still at the hospital right now?_

_Kai: yeah theyre monitoring his progress._

_Kai: leon is fussing like a doting mother hen_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Isn't that Sora's mom's job?_

_Kai: yeah but leon doesnt give a shit_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Haha. He never does._

_Kai: so true_

_Kai: and you know their parents are too busy _

_Kai: they cant get to him until like 10 on mondays  
_

_Kai: anyway apparently he can remember all the stuff hes learned in high school but he cant remember anything outside of academics_

_Kai: like his social life? completely nonexistent in his mind_

_Kai: he only remembers up until the first day of frosh year_

_Kai: i guess its like the whole thing between you and him never happened_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Oh._

_Kai: anyway i have some ap english homework ive gotta exorcise_

_Kai: ill be here if ya wanna talk about… yeah_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Naw, it's okay. I have to sleep anyway. Love you, doll._

_Kai: ttyl i guess_

_Kai: love you too :)  
_

_**So Sexy It Hurts has logged off.**_

* * *

Riku lay on his side, staring at the wall, an empty hollow in his mind. The moment he felt it, Riku knew it was wrong. When he'd heard the exact day when Sora's current memories stopped, a feeling of hope pulsed through his body and spread through his arms and legs in a rush.

This was a chance to rewrite the entire last three years of their lives. Every mistake he'd made, every little thing he'd done that inadvertently hurt Sora could be erased. Sure, Sora might eventually regain the memories he'd lost, but conversely, he might never remember them.

Riku wrapped the blanket warmer around himself and tucked his chin into the fabric. To be honest, he didn't really care about what others might think, so long as Kairi didn't want to kill him if he tried to rewrite the past. The only thing stopping him was his morals…

But.

The ends justify the means, right?

He'd always wondered how far he would go, how low he would stoop, to get the one thing he wanted most in his life. Well, now Riku had his answer.

* * *

Ahahahaha. Hello there, amnesia cliche. How're YOU doing today?

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	3. Rewriting the Past

Why, hello there. I'm impressed you stuck around this long, as I seem to be pulling reactions akin to "Extreme Dislike of Circumstances! LASIHVUE!" from reviewers. I believe this story has gotten the most negative feedback out of all of the pieces I've written; it's amusing. Especially since the negative feedback repeats things I've covered in my author's notes. Ahh... some peoples' chronic inability to read sarcasm and irony in to online words will plague the human race for years to come.

Anyway, whether you're here to flame or fave... Enjoy~!

* * *

**Semper Fidelis  
**Rewriting the Past

_"Kairi, I want to ask you something."_

_"Yes, Riku?"_

_"Well…" the silver-haired teen looked over his shoulder to the retreating form of his best friend. "You know what we talked about yesterday?"_

_The redhead's eyes widened. "Y-yeah…"_

_Riku took in a deep breath and looked her straight in the eyes._

_"I want you to teach me."_

* * *

When Sora woke up this morning, he automatically reached for the glasses he knew wouldn't be on his nightstand.

It had been a week since he woke up in the hospital and he was still adjusting to the sudden leap in time his body seemed to have gone through. Thankfully, his only injury remedies included putting his right wrist in a splint and his right leg in a cast. When he first tried writing with his left hand when he got home, he found it surprisingly easy to hold the pencil steady. When he asked Kairi about it, she told him he'd spent all of sophomore year training himself to be ambidextrous and the trials had been successful.

Well, at least he got one of his life goals done while he was in high school.

It felt ridiculous to try to get up in the morning. His gimp leg and gimp wrist didn't exactly allow for ease of motion, so his mother forbid him to go to school. Instead, she put the burden on Kairi to collect all of Sora's missed work and deliver class notes any teachers had assigned.

Sora would be confined to bed rest and school work for a long time.

"Sora, honey, are you up?"

"Yes, mom," he called toward his door, punctuating the answer with a sigh.

His mother, a blonde woman with eyes as blue as Sora's entered the room. "Kai stopped by with your homework already this morning." She held up a stack of papers. "Where do you want me to put this?"

"Just on the desk." Sora paused and looked down at his hands. "I… Mom, I have a question."

"Mm?"

He bit his lip. "When can I see Kairi and Riku?"

His mother laughed and rolled her eyes. "When you call them, Sora. You're not on a leash anymore, okay?"

"Wait… does this mean I have my driver's license?"

The small laughed morphed into an almost-guffaw as his mother suddenly doubled over and steadied herself against the desk.

"_You_ driving? Don't you remember Disney World before high school?" _Ouch. _That was a low blow. There were some memories Sora wished he _had_ forgotten: causing multiple pseudo-traffic pileups in the driving rides at Disney World was one of them.

"Oh, Sora, you still crack me up…"

Sora sighed and lay back down in bed, allowing his mother to exit the room and continue her chuckling on the hallway. So if he was allowed to see Riku and Kairi whenever he wanted, then did it mean he was free to date? Had he been dating anyone in high school?

Actually… had he come out to anyone yet? No doubt Kairi would know, but he couldn't be _sure_ she did because he never remembered telling her, only planning on telling her. But he'd probably come out to Riku by now. After all, even if he'd lost his massive crush on his best friend sometime during those years he'd forgotten about, it was back full force now. There was no way he could've gone his entire high school career without coming out to his best friend he was (quite conveniently) in love with. After all, he was almost one hundred percent sure it was Riku who'd been holding his hand when he woke up, that it was Riku who'd brushed his lips against Sora's forehead…

And all he had to do was text them to find out.

He picked up his phone from his nightstand and squinted at the screen. Maybe it would be easier to text them after he went and put his contacts in. Hopefully he would be able to do that without poking his eye out.

* * *

Kairi nearly jumped out of her seat in delight when she got a text in class from Sora.

_'do u n riku wana hang out 2day? :)'_

It caught her off guard at first, because Sora stopped typing and texting with bad grammar sometime in freshman year, but the message was from his phone and, well… there was no way it could have been from anyone but Sora. Kairi keyed in her response.

_'sure :)'_

Three seats away, she glanced over to Riku, making eye contact so quickly it would have looked unnatural to anyone who'd been paying attention. As soon as she made contact, Kairi quickly looked down and scribbled a note on the corner of a fresh sheet of lined paper. Trying as inconspicuously as she could, the redhead tore the paper chunk away from the rest of the sheet and folded it into a little square with Riku's name written on the top.

"Get this to Riku?" she whispered to a boy who was sitting beside her. He regarded her skeptically for a moment before passing it on to the person beside him without an explanation. Kairi watched the paper travel across the second row from the corner of her eye until met its target.

In response, he smiled and nodded.

Kairi had arrived at Sora's home before Riku did, carrying her school things (which had morphed from a soft blue backpack to a big white purse and a two-inch folder) in with her and setting them at the doorway of Sora's bedroom. It was, truthfully, a bit shocking to see her in person even though he'd spent the last few days going through the few recent photos he could find in the house. Sora, Riku, and Kairi all hated getting pictures of themselves taken, so the only ones he could find were the occasional wallet photo from both his best friends and the yearly portraits the school took for the yearbook.

Kairi's complexion had cleared significantly since junior high and she'd mastered the art of applying make up. Her hair had grown out to almost twice its length and was cut to look stylish, weightless, and so soft looking that Sora wanted to steal her shampoo and keep it for himself.

(Not that he would ever admit to anyone he was a closet diva. Surely, no one other than Kairi had found out within the last three years!)

"How have you been?" she asked, generic in her greetings as always. Or, at least from what Sora could remember.

"Meh. Could be better. At least I'm not in a neck brace anymore." He laughed humorlessly and gazed out the window. "I saw some of the post-accident pictures. My face looked like I'd been caught mid-chubby bunny contest and I passed out from all the sugar."

"That happened once last year," Kairi said, chuckling. "Almost, I mean. You pretended the sugar knocked you out once and scared the living daylights out of Tidus."

Despite Sora's dull recollection of who this 'Tidus' guy was, the pair shared a quiet chuckle and fell silent. Sora absentmindedly fiddled with his blanket, letting an awkward air fall over the room. Inches away, Kairi squirmed in her seat, trying to find another conversation opener.

"So… is there anything you want to ask me?"

"Uhm… yeah, I guess. Two things."

Kairi raised a well-plucked eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Well, why isn't Riku's number in my phone?"

There was a slight pause before Kairi answered. Sora didn't like this…

"You, uhh, dropped your phone in the toilet a couple days before the accident and it erased your numbers. Riku can't text and you have—I mean, _had—_his number memorized, so you, umm… you didn't bother putting it in."

"Oh, okay…" Wow. That was kind of… strange. It almost felt like Kairi was lying to him.

"Do you have anything else?"

"Hmm?"

"There were two questions?"

Sora stopped and closed his eyes. "Yeah, but… this other one… it's… kinda huge but really private, and I don't know whether or not I told you before the accident, so…"

"I know you're gay," Kairi interrupted. "You came out to me right before freshman year at a pool party. Though, it was super obvious to everyone when your mom tried to force us to kiss under mistletoe last year." She chuckled to herself. "I think afterward you took down all the mistletoe in the archways and burned them with Axel outside."

"Axel?"

"He graduated last year," Kairi supplied. "I doubt you'll see much of him… he was always perving on you frosh year—not that you minded. You thought he was hot stuff. But that was all before Roxas moved here and they started… well, I wouldn't call it dating. I think they skipped dating and went straight to fucking and almost instantaneous cohabitation."

He chocked at the mention of sex. "Roxas? You mean, my _cousin_ Roxas?"

Kairi sighed and nodded. "Yes, your cousin Roxas. Homosexuality seems to run rampant in this generation of your family's gene pool." She quirked the edge of her lip and ruffled Sora's deflated spikes. "Among other things."

Sora swatted away her hand and leaned deeper into his the pillows. "Sounds like I turned into a social person."

"You have _no_ idea," she muttered, playing at an annoyed tone.

"I never thought I'd have any friends outside of you and Riku." Sora turned back to the redhead and smirked. "Sounds like I went crazy during high school."

"You did," Kairi replied, growing quiet. Her tone of voice invited for more questioning, but was cut off by a sudden knock at the door.

"Sora? You in there?"

Sora's chest felt abnormally still as he watched the person behind the door slowly turn the knob and nudge the wood open. Sure, forgetting four years in his life meant not exactly recognizing people and being surprised by the few changes his peers had gone through during the rough patches of teenage hormones, but…

Man, had puberty been kind to Riku.

And not only kind, but if it hadn't been obvious before, it was evident now that Riku Arnett must've been some sort of byproduct of an Adonis-Aphrodite-style love affair—a passionate, illegal, kinky love affair—because Riku had the appearance of a God. From where Sora sat, Riku's skin looked as if it were blemish free. His previously lanky arms had been toned to perfectly muscular, and his face had become so cleanly chiseled that Sora wanted to run his fingers, lips, and tongue up and down the other male's face and throat. And chest. And abdomen. And… other parts…

Sora felt the tiny, instinctual spark of want flare up into an inferno, and in the back of his mind he found himself mentally chanting:

_'Please say we're dating, please say we're dating, please say we're dating, please…'_

He was interrupted when Riku padded across the room and took at seat at the foot of Sora's bed. "How are you?" Riku greeted, pausing only to see Sora smile up at him invitingly. "You… you said wanted to talk to me?"

Why was he sitting so far away?

He was probably afraid that being closer would harm Sora; the brunet would have to remind him that he was past breakable now. Everything that he could worry about breaking was already hurt.

"Hey, Kai, could you… uhm… excuse us for a second?"

"Yeah, sure." She stood up and glanced back at them. Had Sora been more lucid, he would have noticed the terrified look in his best friends' eyes in their shared glance before Kairi exited the room.

However, Sora was far from fully functional.

"So, Kairi said you wanted to talk to me." Statement, not a question. Oh, this was going to be so awkward…

"So… I… I have a… Did you… Were, uhm, we… uhh…" The brunet tugged at his flaccid spikes and dropped his gaze to the ground where it smashed into little, glittery pieces. Man. Talk about a gay boy with no balls. That was probably the most epic fail attempt at conversation Riku had ever witnessed.

"Sora?"

Within moments, the brunet grabbed the covers on his bed and stuffed his face into its depths, hiding the blush that was quickly staining his cheeks. Oh, he was so lame now! Maybe he should've just left things the way they were, should have just let nature take its course and let Riku come to Sora, like it had always been. Maybe he should have just… never gotten hit by a car.

Well, that one he couldn't control. It was best not to think about it as thought he could.

"Sora," he felt the weight shift on the bed; Riku was moving closer to him, "are you okay—"

"GAH!" Sora threw his hands up in the air and wailed. "Why is this so difficult?"

Two warm hands grabbed hold of his shoulders and the brunet's vocal box screeched to a halt. Sora quickly covered his mouth, hoping the rest of the squeak he made wouldn't continue to escape from his throat.

"Sora, look at me." Riku's voice sounded… odd. Like he was on the verge of tears. "Sora. You can ask me anything, okay?"

"O-okay…" The brunet began wringing his hands in his lap. "So… I wanted to know why you… when I woke up, that is, why you…"

"Why I kissed you?"

"Yeah," Sora smiled, but quickly amended his facial features. "I mean, it's not like you're gay too or anything…"

He heard a sharp intake of breath before Riku answered. "Actually, Sora…"

"Yes?" The hope was slipping into his voice.

"Well, I… am."

A wave of what felt like the essence of 'refresh and restart' passed through his torso and spread through him limbs.

"Really? You too?" This was… this was wonderful!

Riku's unsure face morphed in to one with a brilliant smile. No braces, perfectly straight white teeth. "Yeah. Me too. I'm gay."

When Sora looked up, Riku face was so close to his all Sora had to do was fall forward a few inches to land his mouth against the older male's lips. He was almost tempted to try, but something held him back; something inside him wouldn't let him connect his lips with Riku's.

"So, uhm… were we, uhh… dating before I—"

"What do you think?"

He was silent for a moment. What were the chances that the two of them could both be gay and that Sora hadn't made some sort of move on Riku? He knew he wasn't a forward kind of guy back at the beginning of high school, but he knew what he'd wanted back then, and that had been Riku. He would've gone after what wanted, right? Right. Probably.

If he didn't wimp out, that is. Ooh, his chances weren't looking good...

"I think…"

Their eyes met and every though flushed from Sora's head. He couldn't read the expression locked behind the silveret's mask, but could see his Riku nibbling the inside edges of his bottom lip—something he did back in the day whenever he felt nervous.

Still, Sora could feel something else aside from the nervousness in Riku's immediate atmosphere, yet he couldn't pinpoint what. Learning the godlike teen's new habits was going to be a pain, but Sora already knew it was also going to be worth the time.

After all, Riku was always worth his time.

"I think I don't care." He grinned at Riku and pressed their foreheads together. "You kissed me at the hospital, didn't you? That means you like me, and since I like you…"

"Yes?"

"Well, then it's only natural that we date now, right?" Sora laughed and the sound colored the room with brightness the afternoon sun could never supply. "After all, you are my best friend—my best choice."

The expression on Riku face expelled nothing but pure euphoria, and Sora couldn't help but reciprocate the sentiment. He leaned forward a little closer and squashed their noses together, giggling. He felt Riku's hands slide away from his shoulder—one to the small of his back, one to the back of his head—warm and secure. He closed his eyes and allowed a grin to spread over his face.

"I'd like to think that too."

Everything felt like it had fallen into perfect place.

* * *

_**So Sexy It Hurts has logged on.**_

_Kai: i cant believe you!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: I know; I'm sorry._

_Kai: dont tell ME youre sorry! tell sora when he gets his memory back!_

_Kai: you fucking idiot! i had to cover for you ya know?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Kairi, wait._

_So Sexy it Hurts: Can you just… stop and listen for a second?_

_**So Sexy It Hurts is calling you. Accept (Alt+C) or Decline (Alt+D)**_

On screen, the silveret pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and groaned. Boy, did he ever fuck up badly... If Kiari could get a hold of his neck, it would be wrung faster than he would be able to squeak out an "I'm sorry."

"Explain yourself, Riku."

"I just… I don't think I really have to. Don't you remember what we talked about freshman year?"

Kairi pouted. "Yes. Unfortunately."

"Kai, this isn't a bad thing. Really, I pro—"

"Oh yeah? You 'promise', do you? Don't you remember what happened last time you made a promise?"

"Yes, I do." Riku frowned, voice pleading. "And I'm sorry okay. I really am. It's just—"

_**Your call has ended.**_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Kairi!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Please don't go!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: I need to tell you._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Just let me explain._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Please?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Kairi, come one. Please._

_Kai: fine_

_Kai: you have ten seconds_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You know how much I hate that he and I were warring before the crash. I hate that it was his one-sided battle._

_So Sexy It Hurts: And you know how long I've wanted to be with him, how much. You know how much I care about him._

_So Sexy It Hurts: I did it because I never once dreamed he would like me back and if I didn't accept his advances then maybe I'd never get the chance to be with him._

_So Sexy It Hurts: I had to. For you, me, and Sora._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Well, actually for mostly me and Sora I guess._

_Kai: wait_

_So Sexy It Hurts: I'm not going to lie to you; it was hard to think about the three of us when it was just me and him in that room._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Yeah?_

_Kai: so HE asked YOU? not the other way around?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Yeah_

_Kai: well i guess you know now_

_So Sexy It Hurts: That Sora's gay? Yeah._

_Kai: no that he likes you right now_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You mean "liked". I'm pretty sure these are just leftover feelings from when we entered high school._

_Kai: no riku_

_Kai: why do you think i always asked for two wallet pics_

_Kai: its not because im making a scrapbook. can you imagine me scrapbooking?_

_Kai: sora always took one and pretended the one he took fell out of my wallet_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Wait. Seriously?_

_Kai: seriously_

_So Sexy it Hurts: Kairi, you know I love him, right?_

_Kai: yeah_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Then why can't I let him know I love him, too?_

_Kai: ok i get it_

_Kai: sorry_

_So Sexy It Hurts: It's okay. Shit happens._

_Kai: like babies, stds and natural disasters right?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Exactly._

_Kai: haha alright_

_Kai: hey sorry for freaking out on you_

_So Sexy It Hurts: It's alright. Happens all the time, right?_

_Kai: right_

_**So Sexy It Hurts is calling you. Accept (Alt+C) or Decline (Alt+D)**_

"Yeah?" she asked, swiping her bangs from her eyes.

"Kairi, I'm scared."

Even though she could think of about a million reasons why Riku should be absolutely terrified, Kiari still asked, "Why?"

"What if he remembers and rejects me?"

"Riku, sweetie, it's something we'll deal with when we get there. Just make Sora happy, 'kay?" Dealing with these two guys, juggling two stories at one, was going to be very, very complicated.

"Like I'd do anything other than that."

"Hah. You're whipped."

"You know it." The pride in his voice was heartbreaking.

"And proud apparently. So, anyway, I need help with this AP Chem stuff. It's 'Monkeys Eat Peeled Bananas' for the meth-, eth-, prop- and but- prefixes, right?"

"Organic chem. Is supposed to be the easiest part of the year, Kai."

"Shut up."

On screen, Riku let out a whole-hearted laugh. "Well, just be glad you're not taking AP physics with me... No. Actually, you should be envious. Physics is way easier than Ap chem was."

"Ri_kuuuu_! Stop gloating and help me out!"

"Haha… Yeah, and an –ane suffix for…"

* * *

Man, is it nice to write a predictable story. My mental study energies aren't wasted this way. ;]

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	4. Not Quite

Well, this is a completely unrelated note, but I attended ParléStream (term asked to be coined by moi during the chat) today. 'Twas epic. Who else was there? :)

Anyway, enjoy chapter four.

* * *

**Semper Fidelis  
**Not Quite

_"Riku, I don't know if this is a good idea. What if he finds out?"_

_"He won't. I promise."_

_"You promise?"_

_"Promise."_

* * *

The security guards wouldn't stop yelling. That was one detail that Sora wasn't soon to forget, as over the past few weeks, he'd recovered a few scattered memories of the awkwardly loud and awkwardly gravely and awkwardly shrill voices of the three loudest security guards calling out in the open hallways at students to get to their classes.

If he recalled correctly from what Riku had been telling him, the students had nicknamed the balding, graying one "George Bush".

Secretly, he wanted to see "George Bush" today and see if he did any justice to his namesake.

As the students began filtering out of the main halls, Riku finally deemed it safe for Sora to enter the thinning mass of bodies. They made their way slowly, letting the rowdy, panicked freshmen pass them. Sora was amnesic and 'crippled' via car after all, so the guards would probably leave him to his own wandering devices as he tried to figure out what was going on with his schedule and the room numbering system.

They had just passed the stairs near the E-hallway when suddenly...

"Sora, _Sora_, _SORA!_"

A dark bundle of energy jumped off the side of the stairs and landed with a graceful cat-like _tap-_tap of what were likely feet on the floor. Immediately, it wrapped itself around Sora's short body and squeezed him with what felt like a vice grip. Tentatively, he brushed back the sleek hair obscuring the energy bundle's face and attempted to look down at the identity of his new bodily addition. Big, bright, white and brown eyes shone up at him, little temporary crow's feet forming at the edges from happiness.

Meanwhile, it became obvious to Riku that it was getting hard for Sora to breathe.

"R-Riku... get this.. thing offa... fuck, ow!"

As quickly as he could, the silveret swooped in and plucked the ninja child off Sora's body, stepping between them momentarily to inspect Sora's wrist and aching ribs.

"Nice going," he muttered loud enough for her to hear. "You almost re-broke him. You're lucky his leg's closer to healing now and you're so light,"

She huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm sorry... I though I was being careful to avoid his problem areas."

"By wrapping around his middle section?" Riku laughed, a bit humorlessly. "Man, Yuffie, you're always _so_—"

He was cut off when Sora suddenly jerked his head up and faced the now meek-looking Asian girl with shorts that barely passed dress code and boyish hair.

"_You're_ Yuffie?" he squealed, popping in to his prepubescent teenage boy voice. "But... your hair... and... you're so..."

The girl chuckled and clasped her hands behind her back. "Yeah, I cut my hair and lost some weight in high school. Bye-bye, baby fat! Helloooo cute, boyish figure!"

"I bet my brother thinks so," Sora murmured, making Yuffie grin wider.

It was no secret there was mutual attraction between his friend and his older brother; however unconventional their eight year age separation was, the people whose opinions mattered didn't see anything wrong with it. Leon did, after all need someone like Yuffie to keep him from graying too fast after his accelerated med school program. Of course, they would probably wait until Yuffie was twenty before they could admit their attraction to each other and any real dating could take place.

"Now I'm curious about what Tidus and Wakka and Selphie look like too."

Sora limped over to her, too excited to keep watch on his body's condition, which resulted in his momentary stumbling and Riku's quick rescue. He smiled gratefully at his boyfriend and turned back to Yuffie, who was watching the two of them with a quirked eyebrow and a sly expression on her face.

"What?" Sora asked, lips soon pursed and eyes narrowed.

"Nothing," she replied, flashing another grin at him and cocking her head to one side. "It's just nice to see you two this close again."

Sora smiled back to her, a bit confused, and nodded. "Well, I guess I'll see you later today? Will I?"

"We have calculus together." She paused and then added, "with Kairi."

"And me," Riku added, bumping Yuffie lightly on the shoulder.

"R-right!" She agreed, quickly yet still managing to sound sheepish. "I almost forgot."

"You did," Riku deadpanned.

"Uhh... Touché!"

Recovering quickly, she giggled and saluted the two of them before vaulting herself back over the edge of the stairs and practically hopping up the steps three at a time, as graceful and lithe as a cat.

"We should probably get you to your government class," Riku reminded him when he made no motion to continue walking.

"Ahh, right," he agreed. A slight blush began forming on his face—he could tell from the embarrassing heat against the surface of his skin. "I-it's... I'm not inconveniencing you, am I?"

"Naw. English is just down the hallway. I'll meet you out by your door to walk you to calc?"

"Yeah." He smiled and nibbled the bottom of his lip before replying, "I'd like that a lot."

Seven hours later, school let out and Sora headed toward the student parking lot alone to meet Riku on the other side where the track and football field were located. Hopefully, Kairi would soon meet him and they could all drive to get frozen yogurt when Riku was done. The Arizona sun simmered in the sky, and Sora could feel the heat seeping through his flip flops the moment he stopped at the edge of the track to watch Riku jog lazy loops on the scorching track pavement. Breath caught in his throat when Riku bent over to tie his too-short shoelaces just a little farther down the track where Sora was standing.

Because, right in front of him was the perfect outline of Riku's quite—excuse his language, but—delicious-looking ass.

However, a few feet away, a small cluster of three freshman girls were giggling and pointing toward Riku's general direction, each shoving the others toward where _Sora's boyfriend_ was bent over.

Somewhere in his subconscious, he recognized that look—it was the look of an idiot or a group of idiots about to go after something that wasn't theirs to take.

Instead of throwing a bitchfit, Sora took to leaning carefully against a nearby scraggly tree and watching the scene play out. Or, rather, listening.

"Hey, you're Riku Arnett, right?"

"Yeah."

_'Noncommittal tone equals "back off, bitch". Tell it to 'em, Riku!'_

The three girls edged closer, and Sora saw his track runner's jaw clench. Glistening shadows formed near the center of his throat as the muscles defined and stood out from under his skin. The simple sight of it stirred up what Sora was sure were a stronger version of the primal urges he'd felt before in junior high.

"I'm Kitty and this Sarah and Angela."

"Hi." Angela.

"Hello there, handsome." Sarah. _Purred._

The silveret grunted in response as he stood up from tying his shoes. Abruptly, he turned toward the three and nodded, sans smile—a complete marble statue. "It was nice meeting you," he spoke back, completely monotone, before stretching once and resuming his jog.

Although it was a bit of a rude brush off, Sora couldn't help but relish in the fact that had it been himself in those girls' shoes, Riku would have likely stopped jogging or asked him to walk along with. Instead, he gave them the classic I'm-a-busy-guy break away, which left them confused and exposed in the middle of track field. Sadism wasn't exactly the kind of thing Sora was in to, but at the moment, he was definitely deriving pleasure from their humiliation.

From his spot against the tree, Sora chuckled.

"What's so funny?" came a voice from behind him. He didn't need to turn around anymore to recognize who it was.

"Nothing." Sora smiled to himself in spite of his answer. "Nothing, Kai. You wanna go get yogurt when Riku's done?"

"Yeah, sure."

* * *

To be honest, it was refreshing to see her two best friends in such close proximity without fighting. For the first time in years, Kairi was sitting down in a public place with both men without a single malicious smirk on Riku's lips or snarky comment coming from Sora's mouth. Instead, the three of them shared two heaping cups of ice cream, one cup made by the absolute chocolate and fudge and peanut butter addict Kairi, and the other cup made by her fruit-loving fairyboys.

"Oh gods, is it just me or has frozen yogurt gotten better since I woke up?"

Kairi let out an unabashed laugh and scooped another elegant spoonful of (peanut-butter and chocolate swirl covered in marshmallow and graham cracker bits) frozen yogurt in to her mouth. "It's the food of the gods, Sor," she managed through the divinely smooth and sugary melting wonder taking place on her taste buds. "It can only get better"

"Right, you are, milady," Riku followed up, popping out a random, badly-executed British accent. He quickly popped back in to normal voice when the redhead at the table nearly choked.

"The failtasticness of your voice will never cease to amuse me." She paused before going for another scoop and eyed Riku warily. "That is, it will if it kills me."

The silveret clapped his hands over his heart and smiled. "I'd never."

Satisfied, Kairi let her spoon fall back in to the mound of rich deliciousness, and subsequently ascend the path between the cup and her mouth. The moment her eyes squeezed happily from the taste, Riku and Sora's eyes met, and the two nodded simultaneously, their conspiratorial minds churning on the same road at the same rate.

Across the table, Sora fake-rolled his eyes and scoffed in an equally horrid accent, "Right. Of course you wouldn't speak in an English accent again, Riku; you're too good for that kind of tomfoolery."

Kairi almost choked again, but instead of swallowing, nearly spit out the entire globby mess almost on Sora's face. Luckily, she missed and it landed on the chair back behind him.

"You _asshats!"_

Sora and Riku shared a snigger before attacking her frozen yogurt as she left to fetch a napkin.

* * *

_**So Sexy It Hurts has logged on.**_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hello, m'dear._

_Kai: hey asshat_

_Kai: your finally happy arent you?_

_Kai: *youre_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You're, Kai. YOU'RE._

_Kai: oh shut up_

_So Sexy It Hurts: I feel like "I Can't Decide" would be a great song for this situation right now._

_Kai: you suck. frsrsly_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Frsrsly?_

_Kai: yeah frsrsly_

_Kai: but anyway. youre finally happy and so is sora_

_Kai: im glad_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Yeah... although, do you think you should let him know I have an MSN now?_

_Kai: but wont he think somethings up?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Just tell him I had to get a new one or something._

_Kai: so lie to him?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: … Well, I /__am/ so sexy that it hurts._

_So Sexy It Hurts: But seriously, just tell him that I just made one, okay?_

_Kai: … youre lucky we got these sophomore year_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Back when I still thought we had a shot at just friends._

_Kai: dont remind me _

_So Sexy It Hurts: You're the one who brought it up; I'm just the running commentary._

_Kai: your semicolons intimidate me _

_So Sexy It Hurts: Anyway, just... add him to the conversation, will you?_

_Kai: there. soras here now. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey, Sora, it's me. Riku._

_chocolocks: hey?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: … Oh no. Another illiterate._

_Kai: hey! not cool!_

_Kai: i can totally read!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: But you can't type. Writing is half of the literacy count in my book._

_Kai: you ASSHAT _

_chocolocks: haha..._

_chocolocks: u guys fight like old married ppl_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Sora, I need to ask you something important._

_chocolocks: yeah?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: … Will you make an effort to type with good grammar?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You started to near the middle of sophomore year, and it's painful to watch both you AND KaiSlutFace type like this._

_Kai: kiss my assessment _

_chocolocks: Ok. I'll try._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Thanks._

_So Sexy It Hurts: And no thanks, KaiSlutFace._

_So Sexy It Hurts: You'd enjoy that too much._

_Kai: hey!_

_chocolocks: LOL_

* * *

Kairi leaned back in her desk chair and let out an extended, heaving sigh. Talking about how Sora was before the accident was certain to raise questions that she didn't want answered—questions she knew Riku wouldn't want answered either. So far, they had only been able to avoid the awkward questions because Sora hadn't bothered asking if anything had changed in high school socially, but that wasn't going to last forever. She was well aware of the fact that there were too many gaps in Sora's memory, and he'd eventually hear something about the way everything was before the crash.

The way it was when he absolutely loathed Riku.

She wanted to tell him the truth, let him know how things really were, but... but... A small part of her was glad the accident happened. It was horrifying to think that—she nearly began crying frustrated tears when she realized it herself—but this chance to start fresh was too much of a gift-born-from-tragedy kind of situation to not be appreciative. That specially happy glint in Sora's eyes whenever he saw Riku had returned with even stronger force, and it was the most unrestrained expression she had ever seen on her best friend's face.

That made him beautiful again. Beautiful not in the way of models and glamor, but in simplicity's sense. Everything seemed bright and clear and clean and whole, like a great spring day when there was a cloudless sky and breeze was light, and it was still hot enough to make Kairi's black clothes absorb heat noticeably in under a minute, but not hot enough to bake her legs in less than five.

It brought a sense of calm to her to see Sora back to his old, carefree self. To tell the truth, she'd started getting annoyed with the way the brunet was so insistent on hating Riku's entire existence and everything associated with it. He'd almost completely shut Yuffie out of his life when she'd advocated for Riku's feelings, and it was only because Kairi was almost his last resort that Sora didn't leave her behind as well.

'_Even though to be fair, he probably should have.'_

The redhead turned over on her floor so that her stomach was to the carpet. With a flick of the wrist, she flipped her Econ book closed, and then set to resting her head on the cover. There would be time in the morning before first hour to get this done; she would be fine.

Everything would be fine. Everything had to be.

* * *

That's pretty much it. Oh, and this is the end of the pre-written chapters. Now I'm really gonna have to churn things out at about a chapter a day. Hopefully, I can keep up. :/

Also, this thing is fantastic: http:/www. newgrounds. com/portal/view/530371

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	5. I Will Remember

I've updated. Show strange, considering the stress I'm under. Or maybe it's just because I already had most of this written before new years.

* * *

**Semper Fidelis**  
I Will Remember

_Hand in hand, Riku and Kairi slipped off toward the side of the house where the blinds of the windows were always drawn. That way, no one could see them from inside._

_"I don't know if this is a good idea."_

_"Kai, it'll be okay. Sora won't find out if we're careful."_

_"…"_

_"I promise I'll be careful."_

_"… I-I still don't know about this."_

_Riku leaned forward and pulled her in to a comforting hug. "Hey. It'll be okay. We're gonna—I wanna do this. For Sora." _

_"For Sora?"_

_"For Sora."_

_"…Okay."_

-SF-

"Are you sure you want to do this, Sora?"

Sora nodded, rolling his eyes again as Riku fretted over his steadily adventurous attitude toward filling the empty space that was his memory. Honestly, he would've preferred Kairi drive him today, but what could he do with her yoga class in the way?

"If I don't hang out with people other than you and Kai, how am I supposed to remember what I did the last three years of my life? I don't like how everything's blank, Kuu."

"Yeah, but... Tidus and Yuna? Why them?"

He pouted, his blue eyes scrunched up in the corners as he glared toward Riku's driving profile. Which was, really, quite nice in a mature, grown-up kind of way, but Sora refused to admit that while he was pouting.

"Why _not_ them? Look, I didn't know Tidus or Yuna before the crash, and was friends with them before I forgot. Why not get to know them?"

A solid frown crossed Riku's face as he pulled to the curb. "I just... Well... It's been three years, so I don't know if they're the same people you remember, okay?"

Sora nodded and shrugged with his mouth. "Riku. I don't remember them. What kind of expectations could I possibly have?"

"Good point."

Riku pulled up to the curb, and unlocked Sora's door. Just as Sora made the motion to exit the car, he felt his boyfriend's hand tug on his shirt sleeve.

"I'll see you later, 'Kuu," Sora smiled as he slipped out of the passenger seat, leaning over to peck Riku's cheek with a kiss.

"Yeah," the silveret replied, smile not entirely natural. "Have fun."

A few yards away, Yuffie sipped her non-sweetened iced tea through her lip-pinched straw. Beside her sat Tidus and Yuna, the former smiling uncomfortably and the latter suddenly stopped takling and... Well, from her position she was able to miraculously glare into the car to eye Riku with a narrow, accusatory gaze Sora couldn't for the life of him understand.

They lingered in his mind for the rest of the day, the glare and the undertone of nervous fidgeting in Riku's voice.

Although he'd found pictures in his wallet of Tidus and Yuna, seeing the pair in person felt... weird. Foreign. Even hostile.

-SF-

"Sora, man, how are you? It's been way too long."

Tidus was the first to stand up and pick up the brunet teen with a bone-crushing hug— which he modified to slightly less painful when the girl sitting next to him (who Sora assumed to be Yuna) gave him a warning look.

"Yeah, I've been outta school for a little while, but I figure a couple weeks is alright." Sora turned toward the Asian girl on his right. "Yuffie, you're looking great, and..." He paused, feeling a bit awkward.

"Thanks, Sora-bear!" Yuffie squeaked a little and hugged her broken-boned friend.

"And... uhh... Yuna and Tidus, right?" The couple nodded. "I have to say, I made some pretty hot friends..."

Yuna nodded noncommittally and turned away from Sora, intent on resuming telling her story.

"So after I jumped the fence—"

Sora's eyes widened. "You jumped a fence?"

"Yeah, I jumped a fence," Yuna answered, pissed off. So apparently, she didn't like being interrupted.

Sora turned to Yuffie for help, but the brunette looked away, embarrassed and conflicted.

Which was supremely awkward to the nth degree. If Sora had to bet on one thing coming into high school, he probably would've chosen that his and Riku's friendship would last, but secondly he would've chosen that Yuffie would still stand up for him when he was being treated badly.

As Yuna continued talking, Sora and Yuffie exchanged awkward looks and quick darting glances between Yuna and Tidus. Though it was obvious Yuffie was torn between friends, it seemed Sora was no longer her number one proirity.

_'Best not fight change,' _Sora concluded. If there was going to be initial awkwardness he might as well accept it now and try to deal with it or move past it. Who knew he could befriend people so antisocial?

-SF-

The moment he stepped through the door, the interrogation started.

"How was the day out with your other friends?"

"Awkward, mom," Sora sighed, pressing his hands against his eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, honey."

As he made his way upstairs, he ignored the fact that his mother didn't really seem so surprised over his response. What was wrong with people? To Sora, it seemed as if everyone except Riku was scared, awkward, or pissed off whenever Sora was around. Though he could probably blame a few things on time passing and people growing up, there was no way that kind of reasoning would work for his _mom_. Her personality was set.

He nearly yanked the doorknob out of its socket when he pulled his room's door open. Again, sometime in the last four years, something had happened to his door that made the knob socket loose.

_"If I don't learn fast, I'm going to be short one no longer locking door."_

Generally annoyed, Sora plopped belly down onto his mattress and hugged a pillow to his chest. Shallow breaths puffed through the cotton pillowcase and warmed the down beneath.

He lay still until the moisture from his breath left a damp spot on the pillow wide enough to wet his cheeks. Then, he rose from the bed, padded over to his desk, and flipped on his computer.

Three new messages.

_Kai: how was your day out? did you have fun?_

_`So Sexy It Hurts: Hey. :]_

"He just has to be so cool about everything," Sora laughed to the walls. "Hmm... a new screenname."

_Woo!Thai: Heyyaa Sora! :3_

That had to be Yuffie.

He flexed his fingers and keyed the same response into Riku and Kairi's windows.

* * *

_Chocobeau_:_ Hey i'm going to try to talk to talk to Yuffie right now. So I'll get back to you in a bit ok?_

_Kai: yeah thats cool._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Take your time. :]_

_So Sexy It Hurts: And I like the new screen name. It's cute._

_Chocobeau: Thanks! :D_

* * *

_Kai: riku. you better hope to god yuffie doesnt say anything to give you away_

_Kai: as much as i love you_

_Kai: i do not want you to blame any of this on me!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Hey, Kai, calm down. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: If Yuffie does say anything—hell, if she says EVERYTHING, I'll tell Sora it wasn't your fault. _

_Kai: good_

_So Sexy It Hurts: I'll tell him I made you keep it a secret._

_Kai: fine_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Do you think he'll be mad at me?_

_Kai: look riku i dont know_

_Kai: we talked about this once before_

_Kai: can we just say no matter what I do or say, ive always got your back?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Okay. Fair enough._

_Kai: okay good_

_Kai: now stop freaking the fuck out and let's try to do the gov homework_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Dammit, you know I'm no good at government. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: I can't help you with this class! D:_

_Kai: i know. im surprisingly good at gov this year so i meant i was going to help you_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Oh, thanks! Here, can we do this over call?_

_Kai: yeah lemme get one started_

* * *

_Woo!Thai: Woo!Thai: Heyyaa Sora! :3_

_Chocobeau: Hey Yuffie._

_Chocobeau: Look, can we talk about today?_

_Woo!Thai: Whaddya wanna know?_

_Chocobeau: What the fuck happened today?_

_Woo!Thai: Well... long story short Yuna hates Riku's guts._

_Chocobeau: What? Why?_

_Woo!Thai: It's something between the two of them or something. _

_Woo!Thai: I kinda feel like Tidus is too wimpy sometimes when he's with Yuna. _

_Woo!Thai: Actually, I'm kinda scared of Yuna too._

_Chocobeau: Why?_

_Woo!Thai: She can be a real bitch_

_Chocobeau: I don't think it's a good idea to talk about people like that. :(_

_Woo!Thai: Soraaaaaaa... She shot you down when you tried to be part of the conversation._

_Woo!Thai: It was a bitch move and you have to agree with me._

_Chocobeau: Ok maybe a little bit, but I don't think she means to be this mean_

_Woo!Thai: Soraa you don't KNOW her even._

_Woo!Thai: Before today's meeting you only remembered her as a girl who was in your wallet_

_Woo!Thai: What could you possibly be able to read about her?_

_Chocobeau: I don't know_

_Woo!Thai: well, did you expect her not to be mean?_

_Chocobeau: Well yeah. You shouldnt be mean to your friends._

_Woo!Thai: But Yuna can be._

_Chocobeau: Then how was I friends with her? _

_Chocobeau: how could I be friends with such a person?_

_Woo!Thai: Sora you grew alot in the last three years _

_Woo!Thai: Freshman-you wouldn't have been friends with her, but old senior-you would have._

_Chocobeau: … really?_

_Woo!Thai: I wish it wasnt true. _

_Chocobeau: Yeah me too_

_Chocobeau: Well thanks anyway. :)_

_Woo!Thai: ^w^ _

_Woo!Thai: I try to help as much as I can. _

* * *

_Chocobeau: Who am I?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: What?_

_Kai: wha?_

_Chocobeau: I think something's up with Yuna and Tidus._

_Chocobeau: It was really really weird today. _

_Chocobeau: Like super awkward._

_Kai: well not to be mean but yuna's kind of a bitch_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Okay, no, Kai, she's not a bitch._

_So Sexy It Hurts: She just doesn't like me._

_Chocobeau: Why not? _

_Chocobeau: Who couldn't like you?_

_Kai: girls who liked you Sora_

_Chocobeau: WHAT?_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Kai, don't put it that way. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: It's more like there were times in the past where we just didn't see eye to eye._

_So Sexy It Hurts: She's just as stubborn as I am._

_Chocobeau: You're not stubborn...?_

_Kai: psh! _

_So Sexy It Hurts: I'm flattered you think that._

_So Sexy It Hurts: And thanks, Kai. Thanks a lot._

_Chocobeau: So I shouldn't be friends with Yuna?_

_Kai: no thats not what we meant_

_Kai: its more like she doesnt want to be associated with us_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You can be friends with whomever you want to be friends with, Sora._

_So Sexy It Hurts: Don't let us tell you what to do._

_Kai: "whomever" riku? really?_

_Chocobeau: Thanks, guys._

_Kai: no prob_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Any time. :)_

_Chocobeau: Also, Riku you're so smart. :P_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Aww, thanks. :D_

_Kai: hes a show-off!_

_So Sexy It Hurts: You're just jealous._

_Chocobeau: KairiJealousButt_

_Kai: hey! not fair! _

_Kai: 2 v 1 is not cool!_

_Chocobeau: Okay okay! :P_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Fine, we're sorry. _

_So Sexy It Hurts: Wait, Sora, you are sorry right._

_Chocobeau: No_

_Kai: heeeeeeey!_

_Chocobeau: Haha_

_So Sexy It Hurts: :B_

_Kai: you guys suck._


	6. A Truth

Hello, my lovelies. It's been a while, but this story is drawing to a close soon. I actually had this chapter written for four months and I didn't realize I hadn't uploaded it. I know. I'm spacey.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Semper Fidelis**  
A Truth

_It only lasted a second. _

_Just one quick second._

_But that was enough._

-SF-

There wasn't much for Sora to do now. Although he was sure he'd probably become a social person over the past three years, it just felt too awkward to hang out with acquaintances from junior high and complete strangers he'd apparently become best friends with. Sure, he might've been reverting back in to his prepubescent shell of shyness, but knowing that didn't stop him from reverting. He tried to make connections again, but no one wanted to talk to him—except for Yuffie, but Yuffie talked to everyone now apparently. It was frustrating to think that no one wanted anything to do with the coma boy. If he thought about it for a little while, he was simply advancing the inevitable falling out that would come after everyone moved on to college.

College. He didn't remember even considering a college, but now he was going to attend Radiant Garden University with Kairi and Riku next Fall. It was relief that he was allowed to keep his partial scholarship—let alone his early decision admission—after Leon explained that the amnesia didn't skive off any of his academic knowledge.

Now, the biggest thing on Sora's mind was his movement from one part of his life directly in to the next. The connection years where he was supposed to figure out who he was and what he loved and what he was good at were cut too short. Psychology and ancient mythology didn't interest him anymore, and he was back to doodling classroom objects in the margins of his notes during math. The tops of scraggly trees he could see through the four small windows outside his sixth hour Creative Writing class, the way each of the looping hallways were labeled only above one end, the pair of cacti outside the library that were lacking significant arms, the quirky multiple Mr. Clarks that all worked in the maths and science department that he'd had for Biology and AP Physics and Calculus and... and...

And these weren't the important things.

'_I've __been __at __school __for... __for __a __month __and __four __days. __And __I __haven't __talked __to __anyone __other __than __Kairi, __Riku, __and __Yuffie __for __a __long __time. __I've __smiled __at __Yuna, __but __she __gives __me __the __weirdest __looks... __Why? __And __where's __Wakka? __I __keep __hearing __about __him, __but __I __never __see __him a__nymore. __And __Roxas __won't __tell __me __anything, __and __Axel __keeps __giving __me __and __Riku __weird __looks when he thinks I'm not looking__—__not __like __they're __bad __looks __or __anything__—__but __they're __weird __and, __and... __and..."_

"What are you thinking about, Sor?"

The brunet looked up from the spot on the dashboard he was staring at and over to the left where Kairi attentively kept her eyes on the road ahead.

"Nothing."

When Kairi's eyes flickered over toward him, he flashed her a quick smile. Silence followed his simple gesture, pressing against the atmosphere, pressing questions out from the back of his mind and through his mouth.

"What happened?"

Kairi pulled into her driveway and unbuckled her seat belt, but continued to face forward. He could see her eyes darting toward her frontdoor and her hand quickly gravitating toward the keys in the ignition.

"What..."

She swallowed and Sora watched her palms press and slide against what he was sure were Riku's old jeans and the hem of her white short sleeve shirt.

"What... do you mean by 'what happened'?"

Sora rolled his eyes. What else could he be referring to? "The past couple of years," he sighed. "What was I like?"

"Y-you..." she stumbled and hesitated. "You were Sora, I guess."

Sora bit his lip. "That doesn't really tell me anything."

The redhead turned away to open the door and sighed, almost inaudibly—but Sora heard her. Suddenly, the urge to reach out toward her overcame his sense, and on their own accord his fingers reached forward and closed gently over her small hand. Their fingers splayed out together across the driver's seat shoulder cushion.

"Wait. Kai—"

"Sora, please, stop. I can't."

His eyes trailed up from her hands along her arms to where Kairi's shoulders were stiff, awkward, hesitant... Like he was.

But he couldn't stop this time. He... he wasn't going to let go. Not like he did with Yuffie, or Tidus, or Axel or Roxas or... or Riku... or...

"Kai, why not?" His voice didn't rise over a whisper, but the conviction in his tone—it scared even himself. "Don't I deserve to know what the _hell _happened over the last few years? Why won't anyone tell me? Why... why won't they... they... I just... I want to know, and... I-I... Why can't s-some just _tell _me?"

By now, tears began tickling the corners of his eyes, his chest rising and falling erratically in hiccups.

"Sora, I-I just _can't_."

The car door slammed; her hand was gone.

This was when he figured the invite to watch a movie at her house was no longer an option. Defeated, he made the seven minute limp-fest of a trip back home on foot.

-SF-

_"He's asking"_ was all Riku had to see. Those two simple words were all he had to see on his phone screen to know that everything was ending.

He flipped over on his bed and hugged a pillow to his chest.

Riku _knew_ this was going to happen at some point, but so soon? It couldn't be that fast already.

His computer beeped. Apparently it could be that fast.

_Chocobeau: Who am I?_

Riku swallowed a lump in his throat. Feign ignorance or own up to it?

_So Sexy It Hurts: What?_

What a coward.

_Kai: wha?_

_Chocobeau: WHO AM I?_

_Chocobeau: WHAT AREN'T YOU GUYS TELLING ME?_

_Kai: So. Calm down_

_So Sexy It Hurts: Sora, you're you._

_So Sexy it Hurts: You're Sora and you love me and Kairi, okay?_

_Chocobeau: Look I know that. But I also know you're holding out on me about something._

_Chocobeau: I'm not stupid._

_Kai: Sora, we've never thought of you as stupid._

_Chocobeau: Okay Riku I'm coming over right now so you better be waiting for me at the door. Im not taking no for an answer._

-SF-

"That was fast," was the best thing Riku could think of as a greeting when a flustered and pissed Sora showed up at his door in five minutes flat. It was also probably the worst thing he could have possible said to a person that distressed.

"Yes, it was."

The words came out nearly venomous. The ferocity behind Sora's glare was enough to make Riku tremor with guilt already. His eyes glistened and the wrinkles around his mouth pursed in a way Riku hadn't seen for four years. It was coming back now, the memories of how and what and when and _why._

It was coming back and Riku was terrified.

"And you _want_ to know _why_ it was so fast? Because Kairi would never keep something from me, and I know that. As long as we're friends, Kairi would never not tell me something but suddenly, today, she does!" tears of frustration begin forming at the corners of his eyes.

"No, Sora, we..." Riku went in for a hug, but was shoved away into the house.

The short brunet pushed past him and slammed the front door behind him. Picture frames near the doorway rattled slightly.

"That's why you and Kairi keep dodging my questions, isn't it? Is that why everyone else won't talk to me about you and why you won't tell me about anyone else?"

His fists balled up, shaking with the need to lash out. You could still see his damaged leg shaking, about to give out, holding him upright only through sheer rage.

"Please understand that I did it because it doesn't matter to me right now what everyone else will think about us," Riku insisted. "I only care about what YOU think."

"Really?" Sora scoffed as he threw his hands in the air. "And did you even stop to think that maybe I wouldn't be okay with this? Did you even stop to think that this wasn't YOUR decision to make?"

"Yes."

And that quick answer was surprisingly effective. So short and simple that the fire in Sora's eyes drained suddenly. It drained and was replaced with a shock and disbelief that left his mouth agape and his eyebrows back in their proper resting place. It was so short and simple, so straight and to the point that Sora shut up just long enough for Riku to manage his explanation.

"And I decided that even if it wasn't my right, it was for the best. It was for you. I'm doing this because I care about you, Sora. Now, just, please, sit down and I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

And so he did.

* * *

**Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' -Kahlil Gibran**

So, yes. Almost done, this series! As always, reviews are loved!  
(Haha... look at me, practically begging for reviews. Man. This is embarrassing...)

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	7. A Glimpse in Time

Now is when we find out. Finally. Sheesh, I take forever.

* * *

**Semper Fidelis**  
A Glimpse in Time

___kai can u help me out_

___yah sure! with what?_

___i need to tell u something. can u get here at 3_

_k. n riku?_

Sora took a deep breath and clicked out the words that had been bothering him for the last four months.

___its about him_

He didn't hear back from her until she was at his front door, swimsuit in a plastic bag and towel in her hand.

-SF-

"So what's this about?" Kairi asked, worried. "I mean, besides Riku."

The brunet sat on the bed, wringing a floppy pillowcase in his hands. If he carried on for any longer, the cloth would likely fall apart in his hands. He let go of the blue fabric only to see that his hands were quivering almost as hard as his heart was trembling.

"Kai, I don't want you to freak out or anything, okay?" It came out thick and lumpy, like someone had shoved a couple shelled, hard-boiled quail eggs down his throat.

She eyed him suspiciously. "Did you break the DVDs I lent you?"

"No!" Sora's mouth fell agape, horrified. The quail eggs were swallowed. "Of course not! What do you think I am, a barbarian?"

She laughed and pressed her hands to her lips. "Okay, okay! Now tell me, what is it?"

He looked down at his hands again. Less shaking. This was good. He could do it. He could tell her and everything would be okay after that because it would be out there and he loved Kairi like a sister and it was going to be okay because no matter what she would never tell his secret to Riku. Never.

She was a good friend like that.

"Kai... I think I'm gay."

* * *

Play it cool. That's all Kairi had to do was play. This. Cool.

Here she was, ready to confess to Sora that she wanted to try giving going out a shot, but how would that look if her boyfriend was gay? But that's okay. He said he only thought he was gay, not that he was surely gay. They were about to enter high school. People called themselves bi left and right in high school, so this must've been one of those growing up things her sister talked about.

That's okay. She had another best friend that she wouldn't feel too weird about dating either. Maybe Riku would be okay instead. She did find him attractive too. Well, he wasn't exactly her type, but he was rather pretty for a guy and did have those moments where he was just so _sophisticated_... Even if he didn't like girls either, he could pretend to date her and just practice kissing like he said he wanted to. He even said before kissing girls wouldn't be that bad; he'd just rather kiss boys.

Yeah. After this, she could call Riku.

She met his unsure gaze. " So you...You 'think' you're gay."

"Y-yeah." Sora stared down at his hands and massaged his knuckles. "I'm... not so sure though."

Kairi paused, waiting for Sora to fill the gap.

"It's just... I guess it's not really _guys_ I like so much as, um... Riku?"

Well, that was certainly a good thing. She couldn't go around giving up Riku's confidential information, so she replied with a simple, "Oh."

Something about her face must've been off because Sora panicked. "You promise you won't tell him, right? He'd hate me if he ever found out!"

"Well," she tried, "he's our best friend. I don't think he'd _hate_ you. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you just told him..."

Kairi looked up from Sora's hands to see the desperation in his eyes. His brows were furrowed in a way she hadn't seen since he'd accidentally broken a framed picture of his mother and deceased father when they were eight. He needed her to be silent.

"Please, don't tell him. Please, Kai?"

She liked to think of herself as a good friend, so she leaned forward and gave him a long squeeze.

"Of course not, Sora."

-SF-

She'd had a distinctively difficult time greeting Riku at the door when he showed up twenty minutes after the big revelation. Leon, Sora's brother, was thankfully watching them in the pool, which made her awkwardness a little more palatable. At one point, even Riku agreed that Leon was hot. He was a bit of a man's man, she supposed.

"H-hey," Kairi greeted him again once they were in the pool.

She tried to be cheery and look him in the eyes, but what Sora had just told her and what she'd discussed with Riku the day before was too heavy a combined weight. She could feel Riku's judgment of her just seeping through his eyes.

"Should we not have talked about that yesterday?" he asked, concerned.

She felt his blue-green stare press into her own face. "No, it's fine."

He pulled her over to the far side of the pool, away from where Sora, Yuffie, Pence, Hayner, and Olette were playing blitzball.

"Kissing isn't that scary, Kai. You said so yourself."

"Yeah," she admitted, "I know."

"I just want to learn for Sora..." he whispered. "You know, so his first kiss is perfect. Do you think Olette would help me out?"

Kairi frowned. This was way too many secrets to be keeping at once.

"Olette likes Pence, and we all know it, so don't mess with that. Besides, it doesn't have to be _perfect_, Riku. I bet Sora would be happy to just kiss you at all." She smiled, trying to cover her slight panic. "You know, 'cause you're so pretty like a girl."

"Augh, seriously?" Riku sighed. "Look, I don't even know if Sora would ever like me in that way. I'm a guy, he's a guy..."

Kairi waved a hand in the air. "Oh, don't worry about it. Can we just talk about this later?"

"Yeah, sure." Riku agreed, looking a bit sullen.

-SF-

Apparently, 'later' meant once Pence, Olette, Hayner, and Yuffie had left.

"Guys, it's really hot out here. Do you want popsicles?" Sora asked, fanning himself.

"No!" Kairi jumped a little with her answer, not wanting to be left alone with Riku. These secrets were just a little too much to handle, and she didn't want to be stuck with another lone confrontation. Strength in numbers, right? Especially when those numbers didn't want to be left alone with each other either? This was awful...

"I'd like one," Riku said. "Cherry?"

Sora's eyes lit up in a way that Kairi was now sure was adoration. "Sure! One cherry and one orange, coming right up. Sure you don't want one, Kai?"

"I'm sure," she managed.

Sora shrugged and wrapped his towel around his waist. He dried off his feet on the mat inside and headed toward the kitchen.

"Kairi, I want to ask you something."

Not wanting to talk, Kairi took to pinching her pruney fingers. They really didn't feel like prunes after being in the water so long. But, more like a soggy towel or a book after it was in the rain and then dried.

"Kairi?"

She sighed. "Yes, Riku?"

"Well…" the silver-haired teen looked over his shoulder to the retreating form of his best friend. "You know what we talked about yesterday?"

The redhead's eyes widened. "Y-yeah…" Oh, no. Not this again.

Riku took in a deep breath and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I want you to teach me."

She froze. But he'd wanted to do this with Olette, right? How could she now that she knew Sora liked him? Maybe before when that wasn't true, she would've more than half-heartedly agreed to it, but now... now this was dubious territory.

"Riku, I don't know if this is a good idea. What if he finds out?"

"He won't. I promise."

She hated promises. They were her weak spot.

"You promise?"

"Promise."

Hand in hand, Riku and Kairi got out of the pool and slipped off toward the side of the house where the blinds of the windows were always drawn. That way, no one could see them from inside.

"I don't know if this is a good idea."

"Kai, it'll be okay. Sora won't find out if we're careful."

She stayed silent. Inside, she could hear Sora tearing through the fridge, calling out to his mom about where she put the pops.

"I promise I'll be careful."

"… I-I still don't know about this."

Riku leaned forward and pulled her in to a comforting hug. "Hey. It'll be okay. We're gonna—I wanna do this. For Sora."

"For Sora?"

"For Sora."

Maybe Sora would be okay with it if this was all for him. Riku really did care about him, if he wanted Sora's first kiss with him to be that perfect...

"…Okay."

It only lasted a second. Just one quick second.

But that was enough.

* * *

"Hey, Riku, I found the fruit bars, but we've only got grape, so you're gonna have to eat it any..."

Hands juggling frozen fruit juice on popsicle sticks, Sora slid open the glass door to his curiously empty back yard. He looked down at the poolside and saw a pair of footprints leading to the side of his house. What he saw there... Well, for the next four years, Sora would always remember this moment as the time he walked in on his world ending.

"Wh-what were you two doing?"

The fruit bars splattered on the ground.

But Sora couldn't believe it. After everything he'd told Kairi about how he was thinking of Riku, she went behind his back and... and...

He could hardly see straight now. The tears that were pooling in his eyes started leaking out, and he pressed a hand to his face.

Kairi stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. Her arms were shaking, and not just from the cold of leaving the pool. She wiped her hand against her face and looked down at her feet.

"N-nothing..."

That snot-faced, red-headed liar... But she was a smaller problem. He couldn't let Riku ever find out that he was gay; Riku would never talk to him again.

"Liar!" he yelled. He turned to Riku and nearly shoved him into the wall with a hard, accusatory finger. He didn't care if the wall was rough and Riku's back was bleeding. Kairi had betrayed him, and Riku had let her do it. "What did you make her do?"

"Sora!"

"It was nothing, Sora, I promise."

"Don't lie to me!" he yelled, getting closer to Riku to the point where their chests were pressed together. "Don't try to tell me I didn't just see that."

Sora was ready to, for the first time in his life, use violence to get his point across. In his thirteen-year-old mind, a kiss counted for something.

And the worst part was, Kairi knew about him and how he felt about Riku. She... she knew and she still...

"Sora, really, it was nothing!" Kairi pleaded.

"A kiss isn't nothing." That was when the anger truly burst. A laugh bubbled forth from his throat, scattered and shaky. There was no way he could let people know. There was no way he could let Riku know. He clenched his fists and caged away his tears. He shut his eyes and lied through his bared teeth.

"You should've told me you liked her too."

Now, Riku would never find out.

* * *

What can I say other than Sora and Riku's reasoning makes no sense? But none of us did at that age, now did we? :P

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	8. Time is a Healer

Quick personal thanks to sana-chan9 and Beseiged Infection for being so supportive. I wanted you all to rage over their choices; mission accomplished! :P

Boyfriend notes that "Sora left his mom alone in an island full of heartless". From this, I can say that fourteen year old AU him probably isn't forward-thinking enough to realize what he's putting everyone else through. We were all there once.

* * *

**Semper Fidelis**  
Time is a Healer

"... So that's why we stopped talking."

Sora stared at his hands. He tried to remember what it might have felt like when he'd made the choice to cut all ties. He pictured the Riku and Kairi from junior high, the two of them sharing a kiss. It still wasn't nothing, but it also wasn't exactly something to freak out so hard over. He frowned, furrowing his eyebrows and tried to dig into his brain for more details. Maybe he was just imagining them, but that vision of Riku's hair, dark grey from the water, overlapping with Kairi's own burgundy locks was something he wasn't exactly able to conjure up so specifically.

His chest tightened at the imagined scene and he let out a shaking breath. Some disconnected part of him was grabbing at his chest and tugging in waves. He laid down on the bed and hugged Riku's pillow to his chest.

"Please don't blame Kairi for anything. It was all my idea and we just both wanted to do what was best for you."

Sora stared at the green walls in shock.

"Kairi I can believe, but you? You do realize that you didn't really do this for me, right? This was all for you."

He heard Riku sniff sharply.

Sora hadn't meant for it to come out sounding so harsh, but he didn't make any motions to fix it. As much as it hurt him to act this way toward Riku, the silver-haired liar needed to be punished somehow. A slam against a wall or a punch to the gut wouldn't be nearly enough, but only because Sora knew he'd hold back. He curled his legs up against the pillow and cradled it like a large teddy bear. He wished he had the guts to pull Riku down with him. He could really use a good, warm cuddle right now.

"Yes," Riku admitted. "I... I just missed you, Sora. It doesn't excuse anything I did, but can't you at least say you're happier now than you've been over the last four years?"

Sora pushed the pillow away and sat up.

"Actually, I can't. I don't remember any of it, or did you forget too?"

He got up and reached for his crutches. Riku stood and handed them to him, hovering over his space like a humming bird.

"I'm going to go home now, okay? Don't follow me."

He didn't.

* * *

Riku was laying in bed, trying desperately to English-homework-away his problems when his computer beeped. He got up and brought the laptop to his bed.

_Kai: and?_

He sighed. Hamlet was going to have to hold that lunge.

_So Sexy It Hurts: I'm a dick. _

_Kai: i already know that_

_Kai: i meant whats new_

He chuckled. At least she could keep the semi-cheery vibes going.

_____So Sexy It Hurts: Well, we talked. _

_Kai: so you told him everything?  
_

_____So Sexy It Hurts: Everything I could from my perspective. _

_________So Sexy It Hurts: I can't tell how angry he is, but I'm going to lay off talking for a while._

_________Kai: he has the right you know_

_____________So Sexy It Hurts: Yeah._

_________________So Sexy It Hurts: But I miss him already._

_____________________So Sexy It Hurts: I missed him before. _

_________Kai: i know. i missed him too. missed us_

_____________So Sexy It Hurts: I shouldn't have pulled you into this. I'm sorry._

_____________Kai: tell Sora for me. he doesnt believe me_

_________________So Sexy It Hurts: I will._

_________________Kai: thanks_

_________________Kai: im gonna go now. gnight?_

_____________________So Sexy It Hurts: Good night._

Riku laid down on his bed again and tried to immerse himself in Hamlet's world. He went through the entirety of Act V, scene ii and didn't remember a thing. Someone died, maybe? He thought he'd read about poison, or was it fish? Nothing stuck.

He sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed and crouched over. He rested his elbows on his bent knees and cupped his hands over the back of his head.

"I shouldn't have done this," he whispered. "Riku, you're such an idiot."

He didn't sleep that night.

* * *

The next day at school, Sora wasn't anywhere to be seen. That was only because he'd spent the previous night rolling around, lazily going over physical therapy motions Leon had taught him. Nothing could push Riku out of his mind.

He tried to read that day, surf the internet, and try out new social websites that had surged up in the last four years. He checked out Twitter, spent a few minutes reading his tweets as "chocobeau". Nothing too interesting happened there other than the fact that he apparently had been running a tumblr blog under the same name and a facebook as "chocolocks". At least as an amnesiac, he was consistent.

All his tweets seemed to be toward people he could only assume were Tidus, Yuna, and Yuffie. Small at replies and inside jokes he didn't understand filled his twitter feed. His tumblr seemed to be mildly popular with a few people. Enough so to warrant four "Are you okay?" messages in his askbox. He quickly penned a text post telling people not to worry before embarking on his snooping.

Most of his reblogs were pictures of people in what he guessed was something apparently fashionable. Most of the guys wore things that looked like the half of his new-old closet that he didn't currently want to touch. Things had changed, twice. It occurred to him that he probably wouldn't have wanted to talk to him old-new self, and that self probably disliked the new-old him. Things wouldn't have meshed, and that just made Sora sad.

But what bugged him the most about looking through his old social networks was the fact that it hadn't occured to him before to just check his activity. Of course, he didn't have a facebook in junior high; he had a myspace. Looking through these posts made him feel oddly blasé. Looking at these tagged pictures, he saw himself with people he didn't know and hadn't bothered to contact him after the accident. It was disconcerting for only a moment when he saw his face but not his smile grinning along with a bunch of other people.

Sora clicked the right arrow and moved backward in time. There he was, covered in glittering body paint and wearing some gold hotpants at what he interpreted to be a costume party. There were two quite delicate and void-of-fat girls on his arms, and he was leaning over to kiss one of them. Upon squinting, he saw that it was Yuna and another girl who was tagged as Selphie.

Another clicked to the right and the costume party pictures stopped. Instead was a giant close up of himself and Yuffie, grinning into the camera at what he thought might be her back yard pool. He exited the window, sat back, and stared at his wall paper. He wouldn't have even known to look at facebook if it weren't for Yuffie's helpful message that morning.

He thought he'd like to talk to Yuffie right about now. She was there through this whole thing too. Unlike Kairi and Riku, she could be counted on for an honest assessment. It was two thirty in the afternoon now, so people would probably be home by this time. He clicked a message onto the screen.

_Chocobeau: Hey can we talk?_

_Woo!Thai: sure~ :D_

_Chocobeau: What happened to me in high school?_

_Woo!Thai: What you mean?_

_Woo!Thai: Like you joining school clubs and stuff?_

_Chocobeau: Not that. Riku_

_Woo!Thai: oh. :(_

_Chocobeau: Yeah._

_Woo!Thai: Um..._

_Woo!Thai: What do you want to know?_

_Chocobeau: What happened._

_Woo!Thai: Like...?_

_Chocobeau: At all. _

_Chocobeau__: Did I hate him?_

_Woo!Thai: well yeah you did._

_Woo!Thai: like, lots of people did._

Sora stared at his screen. Lots of people hated Riku?

_Chocobeau: How?_

_Woo!Thai: can I be honest?_

_Chocobeau: of course_

_Woo!Thai: no, but I mean like really reallllllly honest. _

_Woo!Thai: like, promise-you-won't-get-offended kind of honest_

_Chocobeau: Promise_

_Woo!Thai: Seriously?_

_Chocobeau: YES! Now tell me!_

_Woo!Thai: Well... it's cuz you kinda made them hate him._

_Chocobeau: I what?_

_Woo!Thai: Everyone liked you more because you were easier to get along with and you would actually smile. Riku was kind of depressed all year and didn't make any friends._

_Woo!Thai: You kinda started rumors about him and made people really not like him. Just during freshman year, though._

_Woo!Thai: But it didn't help that by the end of the year, most people thought he was some kinda womanizing delinquent._

_Woo!Thai: You, like, totally reversed that whole skanky guys = heroes kinda thing for him. People reaaally hated him. And kinda trashy girls hit on him like mad until he came out. _

_Woo!Thai: Sorry I called them "trashy". I hate doing that, but I can't remember the word for it... :(_

_Chocobeau: wow_

_Woo!Thai: Oh, and I forgot people kept hitting on him after he came out too. _

_Woo!Thai: They thought they could make him straight. _

_Chocobeau: Does that work?_

_Woo!Thai: Psh, no._

He could almost hear Yuffie scoffing on the other end of the connection.

_Woo!Thai: You really did forget some interesting things. _

In spite of the subject at hand, Sora smiled. He sure did.

_Chocobeau: Shut up. :P_

_Woo!Thai: Sorry. ;)_

_Chocobeau: So did you know what Wiku was doing?_

_Woo!Thai: 'Wiku'?_

_Chocobeau: *Riku_

_Chocobeau: Sorry_

_Woo!Thai: What do you mean? _

_Woo!Thai: Like, were we still friends?_

_Chocobeau: No I mean now_

_Chocobeau: but that sounds interesting too _

_Woo!Thai: Um. Which first?_

_Chocobeau: Back then first_

_Woo!Thai: Yeah we were still friends._

_Chocobeau: Was I okay with it?_

_Woo!Thai: Actually no. :(_

_Woo!Thai: you and me stopped talking for a little cuz of it. :(_

Sora frowned with the emoticon.

_Chocobeau: Why?_

_Woo!Thai: You stopped talking to everyone who was friends with Riku and made new friends._

_Woo!Thai: Except Kairi, duh._

_Chocobeau: really?_

_Woo!Thai: yeah_

_Woo!Thai: She said you almost did, but yhen you changed your mind._

_Woo!Thai: *then_

_Chocobeau: Oh._

_Woo!Thai: Yeah._

_Chocobeau: What about Riku and now?_

_Woo!Thai: What? Wait a sec._

_Woo!Thai: Oh, what he was doing. With the dating you?_

_Woo!Thai: Yeah, I knew you were going out._

_Chocobeau: And you didnt say anything?_

_Woo!Thai: Sorry_

_Chocobeau: Why?_

_Woo!Thai: Because you just looked so happy._

_Woo!Thai: Whatever was wrong was just gone now_

_Woo!Thai: No one wanted to ruin that_

Sora waitied for more, but nothing came. He stared at the screen for almost an hour, scrolling up and down his conversation with Yuffie until he memorized everything there was to be said.

With new resolve, Sora picked himself up off his bed and reached for his crutches. It wouldn't be that bad a walk to Kairi's house.

* * *

Kairi was juggling eating frozen yogurt and removing her makeup when her doorbell rang.

"One minute!" she yelled out toward her front door. A small mango boba popped out of her mouth and down the sink. She frowned and wiped away the rest of her smeared eye makeup. That was too bad.

She rushed toward the front door and yanked it open.

"Sorry, about the wait..." she mumbled. Then she looked up. "Sora?"

"Hey."

She hugged him where he stood outside and ushered him into the house.

"What are you doing here?" she asked the second the front door shut.

Sora hobbled back to her dining table and sat down. She took the seat next to him.

"I wanted to hear about your side of the story."

Kairi's face dropped. She didn't think Sora would be so straight forward about this, because he certainly wasn't that kind of person four years ago. Still, this was return to the Sora she'd gotten used to over the recent years. Though that was a sad thought, it was comforting to know that Sora always had certain qualities of assertiveness in him. He needed it.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"The pool party."

So Kairi told him whatever she could remember. How she was panicking the whole time, her reluctance to go through with what Riku wanted, why Riku wanted it. How he'd told her only a week before that he wanted to kiss Sora, and he wanted it to be a great first kiss for Sora.

"I mean, it's silly now that we all think about it. Kisses aren't that big a deal, but they were such a huge thing back then..." She leaned over and rested her head on Sora's shoulder. "It was stupid then and sounds stupid now. We missed you."

"I think I missed you guys too," Sora admitted. "I was going through my facebook pictures today and... I don't think I really looked all that happy in most of them."

Kairi smiled. "Yeah, I saw that too. But you're just so bright all the time, I don't think anyone noticed when you were dimming just a little."

Sora grunted in agreement. He took one of Kairi's hands in his own and clasped their fingers together.

"Do you think I should go tell Riku I'm sorry?"

Kairi smiled and placed her free hand atop Sora's. "Only if you mean it."

* * *

Riku sat on a barstool at the kitchen island, tapping his feet against foot bars. Trying to read was getting him nowhere. Nervous baking just made him end up with a batch of brownies he wasn't going to eat and a bunch of vanilla-rose cookie melts no one was looking forward to. He was waiting on those brownies now, slowly munching vanilla-rose melts while alternately stuffing them in little plastic bags. His teachers might appreciate some tomorrow.

When he was done packaging everything, he wiped his hands on his legs. Flour covered every inch of the thighs of his dark jeans. Maybe he should change into something a little more forgiving about messes than his nicest pair of pants.

Feet sore and fingers still buttery, Riku shuffled away into his room and slipped into grey sweat pants. His hands itched for another go at making something more complicated. Maybe attempting a chamomile souffle or making some peach cheesecake bars would do the trick.

He'd need to go to the store and buy some canned peaches if he wanted to do anything of the like. It was just before four thirty in the afternoon, but he couldn't just walk out shirtless. He pulled on a black V-neck and reached for his keys and wallet.

He jogged through his house to the garage. The car was outside in the heat at the moment, but the store was only a mile away. He could make it a jog, but—

"Riku?"

He froze. There stood Sora, arms hitched up on his towel-covered crutches, face flushed, and breath heavy.

"Well, I just limped all the way over here from my house. Aren't you going to let me in?"

So, of course, Riku did.

-SF-

After Riku handed Sora a damp towel to wipe the sweat off with, the brunet stripped himself of his shirt in the bathroom and made for Riku's bedroom. The silveret made no motions to stop him; part of him felt too guilty, too ashamed to even ask Sora to do anything.

By the time he got over the shock of seeing Sora shirtless, the brunet was already in his room, sitting on his bed and wiping himself off.

"Don't just stand there. Come here."

Riku did as he was told and approached the bed. He took the towel from Sora's hands and tossed it into his laundry basket.

"Thanks," the brunet smiled. He then laid down on Riku's bed once more, but this time, he faced upward and had his arms outstretched in Riku's direction. He came and sat at Sora's side and leaned over him, running his fingertips along the teen's delicate jaw.

"I'm sorry," he tried. Sora simply smiled at him and brought his good hand over to cup Riku's paler one.

"I'm sorry too, but I don't forgive you."

Riku stared and waited for him to break the silence.

"I can't forgive you for lying," Sora elaborated, "but I can say that I'm grateful for what happened because of it. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes."

The brunet frowned. "You're okay with the fact that I can't forgive you for lying?"

"Yes," Riku breathed. It was more than he'd ever expected.

"Okay."

Sora smiled. He pulled the older boy closer to the bed and tugged him atop himself. If Yuffie and Kairi were right, then there was nothing he could possibly lose now.

"Then I should also probably tell you that I started to love you when we were fourteen. I can still feel some of it now, and I think one day... one day I could really come to love you fully."

Riku could've sworn the words were a spell. Suddenly, his entire being was focused on the way Sora's chest was rising and falling, the way the soft blue fabric of his tank top was thin enough to see the outline of a small nipple beneath the fabric, the way he could feel the contours of Sora's chest against his cheek from where he lay face-to-torso between Sora's carefully spread legs, everything seemed to be amplified, like someone had taken his sensory receptors and cranked them up to maximum efficiency. Every place where only a thin film of fabric separated their bodies began burning.

He felt Sora's fingers weave through his hair and lightly trail down the back of his neck, his not-so-dull nails scratching lightly under the collar of his open vest. Hands shaking, Riku let his fingers tremble along the fine skin line between Sora's skin and pants.

Instead of dipping under either cloth, Riku let his hand bridge the gap to Sora's wrist and move up his forearm until it rest against the brunet's throat. His skin was so smooth, warm. He leaned forward, careful to avoid putting any pressure on the brunet's wounded leg, and nuzzled the skin there with his nose.

Riku lapped a tongue out to flick at Sora's neck. He felt so smooth under Riku's tongue, and the way the silveret's nose was pressed to his hairline amplified Sora's smell tenfold. He pressed close, grazing his teeth against the teen's neck as he breathed in deeply.

The little sounds Sora made when Riku scraped his teeth against the brunet's collarbone, the shuddering sighs he felt pressed between him and the bedsheets, Sora's chest, rising and falling, Sora's one good hand running through his hair.

Riku slid up Sora's body and pressed their hips together, causing the brunet to gasp lightly, caught between pleasure and pain.

"Riku, my leg..."

The silveret sat up carefully and quickly rolled onto his side.

"Sorry!"

Sora chuckled and leaned over to kiss him on the nose.

"It's okay," he assured him. "Well, I mean, if you don't mind waiting and taking it slower..."

Riku grinned and snuggled into the crook of Sora's arm. He draped his leg over Sora's good one and wrapped his arms around the brunet's torso.

"As long as you don't mind us holding each other right now."

* * *

Well, that was kinda fast. At least Sora isn't too melodramatic. A bit too forgiving, maybe, but whatever. One more chapter and this tale's done!

[And yeah, I know. Crappiest denouement ever. Cliche story is cliche. But it's a self-indulgence and resurgence-of-writing-regularly gateway fic for me, so deal. :P]

_Bisous, Minikimii_


	9. Epilogue: Always Together

It took me a damn long time to get here.

I hope you guys get something out of this. :)

* * *

**Semper Fidelis  
**Epilogue: Always Together

_'...Because not all stories can have the happy ending you want.'_

Sora scanned through that break up email more times than he would've liked to admit. He never thought he'd be the dumping kind, but it just seemed like the right move. He sighed and flopped back into his bed, letting the laptop jiggle precariously in his lap.

Who did he think he was, trying to make all of these uninformed choices for Sora? It was basic dishonesty for him to be treating Sora like he was a possession, like he had no free will. That silver-haired, selfish fish of a man really needed to go see someone about those abandonment issues before his next relationship.

They'd had that same problem he'd had with Riku, but this time with less mutual respect than needed to remain friends. Maybe Sora just had a bad instinct on picking people who liked to underestimate him.

"It's over," he breathed, like an incantation. "It's over, it's over."

Outside, slushy, wet sop some optimistic weatherman liked to call "snow" was gathering on the windowsill. His room was colder than he would've liked, but he laid in his boxers and let one hand reach down to shut the laptop and lift it off his red-lined thighs. As his hand lowered the computer to his wood floor, a sneeze shot out and rang down to his arm.

The laptop hit the ground with a slight crash.

"Fuck!" came a shrill voice from the ground floor. "Sora? SORA! Did you break something again?"

He laughed and flipped over onto his side so he could yell out his open door. "No, _mom._" He rolled his eyes. "I don't break shit that quickly, and especially NOT a laptop Sephorlinx gifted to me." He flipped back over and half-assedly pulled his sheets over his ankles. It was a damn nice laptop that every software engineering intern got before they left that summer.

And, yes, Sora did feel quite blessed.

Sora also felt quite startled when a quick _tat-tat-tat _of feet on ground came from Riku's room and stopped at his doorway.

"Hey, mister fancy-pants," he smirked. "Can I see you new computer?"

Sora flipped over again. "Dude, when did you get home?"

"Last night around two-ish in the morning. Did you seriously sleep through that?"

"Yeah." He pursed his lips and smiled. "So you wanted to see my fancy not-that-new-anymore laptop?"

"Well, of course," Riku smiled, crossing the threshold. "You've been bragging all summer since you got it. Can I see?"

Sora obliged, sitting up and motioning for Riku to pull his rolling chair over to the bed. He fished the laptop off the ground and booted it up in his lap. "Yeah, just don't break it. Or go on any hardcore porn sites."

"Of course not. Only softcore for your delicate sensibilities."

Sora handed the slim, silver laptop to him and swatted his arm. "Dick."

"You and I both know that's a good thing."

Sora laughed and slid off the bed. He stepped over to his dresser, took out a pair of grey sweatpants, and pulled them on. The floor was hard and chilly

"Well, I'm going to get chubby. Bring that down when you're ready?"

"Sure."

On the first floor, Kairi was at the kitchen table eating chocolate chip pancakes out of the pan. Further in front of her was a portrait she had been working on since the second day of break.

"I'd say have some, but you were too slow. There are only enough left for Riku now."

"B-but, you..." Sora whispered, "you said they were for _me_."

"Suck it up, sweetie," she grinned, teeth covered in chocolate.

He grumbled and set himself up for some Cinnamon Toast Crunch without milk.

"So you excited for the new semester?"

Sora smiled. "What, you mean our famously most horrifying semester of all of college? Yes. Of course I am." He picked the least sugary pieces he could find to eat first, saving the best for last.

"Wow, so melodramatic," she laughed. "You've been working your butt off since high school; I'm sure you'll be fine. We'll all be fine."

"I'm surprised you're saying that, Miss Ecology Engineering. 'My major is so hard! There aren't any people in it. it's just s_o_ obscure,' " he mocked.

She was quiet for a moment too long before finally wondering aloud: "Is it too awkward to ask, but... why did you and Kadaj break up?"

"He was babying me in public," Sora said simply. "He made all these decisions for me without talking to me about them. Just, assumed too much, ya know?"

"Yeah," she responded, knowingly. "Now, I know this might sound kinda early again, but I'm just going to come out and say it: what do you think of Riku now? You gonna go on that back-up IOU date?"

"Hm?" Sora almost choked on a sugary square. "I-I didn't know you knew about that!"

She laughed. "Well, you do just say the darnest things when you're drunk."

Sora blanched. That would need some work. He slowly pushed around the last few cinnamon-coated squares around his bowl.

Riku had spent the last entire semester in Taiwan doing a foreign exchange program with their Optical Sciences program working on lasers or some photoelectronic thinga-something-or-other. Whatever. Sora just knew it had to do with light and hardware and he was always way too confused by the end of Riku's attempts at an explanation to get it all down.

"I think I will."

Kairi smiled and finished licking the butter and syrup off her fork.

"I'm glad. It's been about two and a half years in the waiting, and you know he's been waiting."

"Yeah." Sora smiled at the thought.

He had been surprised at how well Riku had taken their break up halfway through senior year, and moreover he was impressed with the way Riku didn't shy away from being friends still. The singularly embarrassing thing about their split? Riku had insisted on letting Sora know that if the day came that Sora thought that maybe they could make it on a second-round try, he would be more than one-hundred percent up for trying again.

Maybe not now, but in a few weeks he would be ready.

Kairi got up and padded over to the sink. "So, onto more important things: I actually saved you some breakup pancakes. Do you want them?" She placed her pan in the sink and lifted a plate out from inside the microwave.

"Hell yes," he reached for them enthusiastically. "But... I thought these were Riku's Welcome Home pancakes too. Wouldn't that be some kind of awful, special, fucked up kind of bad luck to make both out of the same batch?"

"Then we'll call them new-beginning pancakes. I'm not that picky."

Sora happily grabbed Mrs Butterworth by her waist, flipped open her top, upended her, and squeezed. "Kairi, I love you. Seriously."

"Oh, shush," she smiled. "I love you too, but I also know that it's just the pancakes talking." She finished wiping up the pan in the sink and placed it in the dish washer. "So how is Kadaj taking the break up?"

"Eh. He'll live. He's been eyeing that cute TA from his chem gen-ed, so I don't think he'll be too broken up about it for that long. It was only a couple months anyway."

"Yeah."

Kairi joined him at the table and continued working on the sketch she had perpetually set at the table. Sora watched her pencil make careful, calculated strokes across the page to form a smile biting into a juicy watermelon. Though they were faint lines, he could make out the background of fake waterfall rocks and low grey stone fences that made up his backyard. The trio's middle-school grins peeked up from between faint lines to greet him warmly. Even though he still couldn't remember that day, he could pretend and conjure up his own version. That always worked too.

"So... Did you talk to Riku about..." Sora sighed and put his fork down. "Well, about his trip?"

"Yeah," Kairi said, not lifting her eyes from the page. "He liked Taiwan but had a hard time in the rural areas when he had time off. Most of the elderly spoke Taiwanese, so he got lost for a while. He's got these really nice pictures of a graveyard he found on his camera though. He said he'd like to go on a picnic there one day"

"I'm pretty sure I specifically said a picnic with you guys. Seriously, it was beautiful."

Sora smiled when he heard his ex-boyfriend-but-still-best-friend enter the room.

"I'll pay for your ticket, Kairi, when I become a successful material scientist, okay?"

"Psh," Sora scoffed, mouth full of pancake. "I'll get it when I'm a full-time programmer with Sephorlinx."

"You two are so full of it."

"I'm glad you returned this," he remarked when the laptop came down in front of his plate. " I was beginning to think the two of you were having a torrid love affair.

"Only ever with you," Riku smiled.

"Oh, shush. That's cruel," Sora smiled back.

Kairi looked up from her page and smiled too.

"I'm glad you guys are here."

"Yeah," Riku replied, a but whimsy.

His mouth was too full to say anything, but Sora was glad too. Despite still not being able to remember the majority of his high school years, he was glad he had been hit by a car. He was glad because this-this living with his true best friends well into college-was a second chance the old him would have never even had known existed. And knowing Riku was a possibility...

Things don't turn out perfectly the way you'd like. But, if you stick it through, you may find that what you end up with is better than what you could've imagined.

* * *

Happily, it's over. :)

Phew. Man. It had been a while since I started this story and to be honest, I was having a hard time resolving some of the interesting moral issues I created for myself at the start of this story. Time really puts a perspective on things and with almost a year of life lived during that terrible drag of a sorry excuse for a hiatus... I just am not the same person I was before.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if you read this and didn't feel any bit uncomfortable with the fact that Riku was (with what he thought were the best intentions) manipulating Sora, I challenge you to read again and find moral fault with their characters.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate you guys putting up with my ridiculous pauses between updates and my inconsistencies. Hope it was worth it... or something close to that.

_Minikimii_


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